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All scripture quotations and Links, unless otherwise indicated, pertain to the King James Version
A
A Ab Abe Abi Abr Ac Ad Adu Ae Ai Al Ame Amo An Ant Anu Aq Ark As At
A A is the first letter and vowel in the ISO basic Latin alphabet. It is similar to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. See Alpha "A" may also refer to:
500 See Roman
Numerals in The Middle Ages the descendants of Aaron, and therefore priests Males descended from Aaron, the brother of Moses. According to the Pentateuch, only male descendents of Aaron were entitled to the status of kehunah, i.e., members of the Jewish ritual priesthood.
Jehoiada, the father of
Benaiah, led 3,700 Aaronites
as "fighting men"to
the support of David at Hebron (1 Chr. 12:27). Eleazar (Num. 3:32),
and at a later period Zadok (1 Chr. 27:17), was their chief.
During the wilderness wandering, Aaron's
rod was the only staff that produced
buds, blossoms, and almonds, indicating God's
choice of Aaron
and his descendants as priests (Num. 17:1–10). also "abaddown"and "abaddoh." Abaddon is Hebrew for destruction. Abaddon (equivalent to the Greek Apollyon, i.e., destroyer) is the Hebrew name of "the angel of the bottomless pit"(Rev. 9:11). The name "Abaddon"appears only once in the King James Bible, NKJV and NIV, but seven times in the NRSV.
"Abaddown"
is translated "destruction" in Job 28:22; 31:12; 26:6;
Prov. 15:11; 27:20. In all of these passages the NRSV simply uses the
word "Abaddon." This word can be thought of
as a personification of the idea of destruction, or as sheol, the
realm of the dead. Meaning: stony (Hebrew: Abanah). This was the name of the main river of Damascus (2 Kings 5:12). Its modern name is Barada, the Chrysorrhoas, or "golden stream,"of the Greeks. It rises in a canyon of the Anti-Lebanon range, about 23 miles northwest of Damascus, and after flowing southward for a little way parts into three smaller streams, the central one flowing through Damascus, and the other two on each side of the city, diffusing beauty and fertility where otherwise there would be barrenness. Meaning: regions beyond; i.e., on the east of Jordan, a mountain, or rather a mountain-chain, near Jericho, to the east and southeast of the Dead Sea, in the land of Moab.
From "the top of Pisgah",
i.e., Mount Nebo (q.v.), one of its summits, Moses
surveyed the Promised Land (Deut. 3:27;
32:49), and there he died (34:1,5). The Israelites
had one of their encampments in the mountains of Abarim (Num.
33:47-48) after crossing the Arnon.
An old English word meaning to
humble; humiliate; to make or bring low The transliteration of the Aramaic word for the vocative "father" or "my father". Abba is a Chaldee word for father, used in a respectful, affectionate, and familiar way, like papa, dad, or daddy. Often used in prayer to refer to our Father in Heaven. This Syriac or Chaldee word is found three times in the New Testament (Mark 14:36; Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6), and in each case is followed by its Greek equivalent, which is translated "father."It is a term expressing warm affection and confidence. It has no perfect equivalent in our language. It has passed into European languages as an ecclesiastical term, "abbot."
Jesus used the term when
addressing God. "Papa" might be the best translation in English. An abbess (Latin abbatissa, feminine form of abbas, abbot) is the female superior, or mother superior, of a community of nuns, often an abbey. In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Rite and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Coptic and Anglican abbeys, the mode of election, position, rights, and authority of an abbess correspond generally with those of an abbot. The office is elective, the choice being by the secret votes of the nuns belonging to the community. Like an abbot, an abbess is solemnly admitted to her office by formal blessing, conferred by the bishop in whose territory the monastery is located, or by an abbot or another bishop with appropriate permission. Unlike the abbot, the abbess receives only the ring and a copy of the rule of the order. She does not receive a mitre nor is given a crosier as part of the ceremony; however, by ancient tradition, she may carry a crosier when leading her community. The abbess also traditionally adds a pectoral cross to her habit as a symbol of office. Abbesses are, like abbots, major superiors according to canon law. They receive the vows of the nuns of the abbey and have full authority in its administration. As they do not receive Holy Orders in the Catholic, Orthodox and Oriental Churches they do not possess certain powers conferred upon abbots, nor do they exercise authority over territories outside of their monastery. Historically, in some Celtic monasteries abbesses presided over joint-houses of monks and nuns, the most famous example being Saint Brigid of Kildare's leadership in the founding of the monastery at Kildare in Ireland. This custom accompanied Celtic monastic missions to France, Spain, and even to Rome itself. In 1115, Robert, the founder of Fontevraud Abbey near Chinon and Saumur, France, committed the government of the whole order, men as well as women, to a female superior. In Lutheran churches the title of abbess (Äbtissin) has in some cases (e.g. Itzehoe) survived to designate the heads of abbeys which since the Protestant Reformation have continued as Stifte. These are collegiate foundations, which provide a home and an income for unmarried ladies, generally of noble birth, called canonesses (Kanonissinen) or more usually Stiftsdamen. The office of abbess is of considerable social dignity, and in the past, was sometimes filled by princesses of the reigning houses. Until the dissolution of Holy Roman Empire and mediatization of smaller imperial fiefs by Napoleon, the evangelical Abbess of Quedlinburg was also per officio the head of that reichsunmittelbar state. The last such ruling abbess was Sofia Albertina, Princess of Sweden.
Abbey See Abbess
The word abbot,
meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery
in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be
given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the
head of a monastery. The female equivalent is abbess. Meaning: servant, worshiper. This was the name of two biblical men: 1. The father of Adoniram, who Solomon put in charge of the tribute (1 Kings 4:6); i.e., the forced labor. 2. A Levite of the family of Jeduthun (Neh. 11:17), also called Obadiah (1 Chr. 9:16).
("service" "servile" ) Abdon is the name of 4 men and one town found in the Bible . . .
A town in the territory of Asher allotted to the
Levites of the family of Gershon (Josh 21: 30). It is identified with
the site called Khirbet 'Abde, about 4 miles (6 km) east of Achzib,
which has fortifications from the Bronze and Iron Ages, as well as
later remains.
Abel-Shittim
Abel-meholah was
the birthplace and residence of the prophet Elisha. It is located
near where the Wady el-Maleh merges into the Jordan River, south of
Bethshean. Here Elisha was found at his plough by Elijah on his
return up the Jordan valley from Horeb (1 Kings 19:16). It is now
called 'Ain Helweh. Abel-mizraim is a place "beyond," or west, of the Jordan river, at the "threshing-floor of Atad." Here the Egyptians mourned seven days for Jacob (Genesis 50:4-11). Its site is unknown.
Meadow of Egypt, would come from
Abel (Meadow) and Mizraim (Egypt). "Mourning of Egypt"
would come from Ebel (Mourning).
to hate with great contempt,
detest, spurn.
Abia, course of
- Zechariah (KJV
spells his name: Zacharias) the priest, father of John the
Baptist was a member of the "course of Abia."Actually Abia
is a KJV version of Abijah. All priests in the tribe
of Levi were assigned to a "course."This is something
like a platoon or a squadron in the military. It is a grouping of
priests who always work together. Because there was only one Temple,
but thousands of priests the priests were rotated from one course of
priests to the next course of priests. In New Testament
times there were so many priests that a priest was fortunate to get
to do what Zechariah did once or twice in a lifetime. See
Luke 1:5,9. This is the name of the month of newly-ripened grain (Ex. 13:4; 23:15); the first of the Jewish ecclesiastical year, and the seventh of the civil year. It began about the time of the vernal equinox, on 21st March. It was called Nisan, after the Captivity (Neh. 2:1). On the fifteenth day of the month, harvest was begun by gathering a sheaf of barley, which was offered unto the Lord on the sixteenth (Lev. 23:4-11).
See also Aviv – also, Biblical: Abel-Shittim or Ha-Shittim (or simply Shittim) –
was an ancient city east of the
Jordan River in Moab, later Peraea, near Livias, about twelve km
northeast of the north shore of the Dead Sea; the site is now that of
Abil-ez-Zeit, Jordan. Abel-Shittim (Hebrew meaning "Meadow of
the Acacias"), is found only in Num. xxxiii.49; but Ha-Shittim
(Hebrew meaning "The Acacias"), evidently the same place,
is mentioned in Num. xxv.1, Josh. iii.1, and Micah, vi.5. It was the
forty-second encampment of the Israelites and the final headquarters
of Joshua before he crossed the Jordan. Josephus states that there
was in his time a town, Abila, full of palmtrees, at a distance of
sixty stadia from the Jordan, and describes it as the spot where
Moses delivered the exhortations of Deuteronomy. There is to this day
as of 2012 an acacia grove not far from the place, although the palms
mentioned by Josephus are no longer there. for ritual purification: The washing of one's body or parts of it as in a religious rite to ensure physical purification.
The term "abomination" commonly using in biblical translations generally represents three distinct biblical words: to'evah, shekets, and piggul. To'evah is the highest degree of abomination, and was originally used to indicate an action which offends the religious sensibilities of a people. Thus, when Joseph was in Egypt and his brothers came down to buy wheat, the brothers were forced to eat apart from the Egyptians, "as it was a to'evah for Egypt" to eat together with them (Gen. 43:32). To the Egyptians, the Hebrews were an inferior race. Furthermore (Gen. 46:34), the Egyptians considered cattle-raising to be a to'evah, and that was the occupation of the Hebrews at that time. The same word is used in the Bible (Deut. 14:3) in regard to animals which are forbidden to be eaten: "You shall not eat any to'evah," for such animals are considered to be abominations. A even greater abomination is the practice of Idolatry, with the idols themselves being referred to as to'evah: "You shall not bring a to'evah into your home" (Deut. 7:26). Sexual offenses, in particular, are denounced as to'evah. This includes transvestism (Deut. 22:5) and male homosexual acts (Lev. 18:22; 20:13). Indeed, in summation of the different sexual offenses enumerated in Leviticus 18, it is stated (v. 26, 28), " . . . You shall not do any of these abominations . . . lest the land vomit you out when you defile it . . . " Shekets is a lesser degree of abomination and refers to unclean species of fish, seafood, birds, etc. (Lev. 11:10-13), but is also sometimes used, especially among the Prophets, in regard to idolatry. Thus it is written (Jer. 4:1), " . . . if you remove your abominations---shikutseha---from My presence . . . "
Piggul is a term used specifically
for sacrifices brought to the Temple, and denotes the flesh of a
sacrifice which was not consumed within the specified biblical time
frame and can therefore no longer be eaten, or even the flesh of a
sacrifice which had been brought with the intention of eating it
after the specified time. An improper intention renders the meat of
the sacrifice piggul.
A group of religions that recognize Abraham as a patriarch. This includes Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Sometimes, the Bahá'í Faith is included in the list. Many smaller non-Jewish groups such as Samaritans, Falashas, Karaits, etc, also trace their spiritual roots back to Abraham, but are not often cited as Abrahamic religions Abrahamic religions are the monotheistic faiths emphasizing and tracing their common origin to Abraham or recognizing a spiritual tradition identified with him. They are one of the three major divisions in comparative religion, along with Indian religions (Dharmic) and East Asian religions (Taoic). As of the early twenty-first century , it was estimated that 54% of the world's population (3.8 billion people) considered themselves adherents of the Abrahamic religions, about 30% of other religions, and 16% of no religion. The three major Abrahamic religions are, in chronological order of founding, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Judaism regards itself as the religion of the descendants of Jacob, a grandson of Abraham. It has a strictly unitary view of God, and the central holy book for almost all branches is the Hebrew Bible, as elucidated in the oral law. Christianity began as a sect of Judaism in the Mediterranean of the 1st century CE and evolved into a separate religion—the Christian Church—with distinctive beliefs and practices. Jesus is the central figure of Christianity, considered by almost all denominations to be divine, typically as one person of a Triune God. The Christian Bible is typically held to be the ultimate authority, alongside Sacred Tradition in some apostolic denominations, such as Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Islam arose in Arabia in the 7th century CE with a strictly unitary view of God. Muslims (adherents of Islam) typically hold the Qur'an to be the ultimate authority, as revealed and elucidated through the teachings and practices of a central, but not divine, prophet, Muhammad. Less well-known Abrahamic religions, originally offshoots of Shi'a Islam, include the Bahá'í Faith and Druze.
The three main Abrahamic religions
have certain similarities. All are monotheistic, and conceive God to
be a transcendent Creator-figure and the source of moral law, and
their sacred narratives feature many of the same figures, histories
and places in each, although they often present them with different
roles, perspectives and meanings. They also have many internal
differences based on details of doctrine and practice. Christianity
divided into three main branches (Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant),
dozens of significant denominations, and even more smaller ones.
Islam has two main branches (Sunni and Shi'a), each having a number
of denominations. Judaism also has a small number of branches, of
which the most significant are Orthodox, Conservative and Reform. At
times the different religions – and often branches within the
same religions – have had bitter conflicts with each other. Also called Oil of Abramelin, is a ceremonial magical oil blended from aromatic plant materials. Its name came about due to its having been described in a medieval grimoire called The Book of Abramelin written by Abraham the Jew. The recipe is adapted from the Jewish Holy anointing oil of the Tanakh, which is described in the Book of Exodus attributed to Moses. Abramelin oil became popular in the Western esoteric tradition in the 20th century after the publication of the S. L. MacGregor Mathers English translation of the Book of Abramelin, and especially via Aleister Crowley, who used a similar version of the oil in his system of Magick. There are multiple recipes in use today and the oil continues to be used in several modern occult traditions, particularly Thelema and the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica.
Absentee Property Law An Israeli law that considers all land in Israel that was abandoned by Palestinians when they were driven from Israel now belongs to the state. Absolute Idealism 19th-century version of idealism in which the world is equated with objective or absolute thought, rather than with the personal flux of experience, as in subjective idealism. The doctrine is the descendent of several ancestors, including the Parmenidean One, the theological tradition of an unconditioned and unchanging necessary being responsible for the contingent changing world, Spinoza's pregnant belief that there is just one world with the characteristics of facts and things on the one hand and of ideas on the other, the transcendental idealism of Kant, and the emergence of activity and the will as the main determinants of history. Other influences include a dynamic conception of nature as an organic unity tending towards a goal of perfection, a belief that this process is mirrored in the spiritual education of the individual, and the belief shared by many German thinkers at the end of the 18th century that ordinary thought imposes categories and differences that are absent from the original, innocent immersion of humankind in nature, and due to be transcended when this ideal unity is recaptured. Talk of the Absolute first appears in Schelling's System des transzendentalen Idealismus of 1800. The idea of a Spirit sweeping through all things was by then an integral part of the Romantic movement, deeply influencing such metaphysically-minded poets as Shelley and Coleridge. Hegel complained that Schelling's Absolute was, like Kant's noumenon, unknowable, and in his hands the Absolute became that being which is progressively manifested in the progress of human history, a definition that has been taken to fit many things, including ordinary human self-consciousness. The idealist elevation of self-consciousness, first seen in Fichte, undoubtedly encourages this equation. But human self-consciousness cannot be the only ingredient in the Absolute, since Hegel also held the doctrine that the merely finite is not real. Apart from Fichte few have been satisfied that human consciousness is the spirit that is responsible for the entire cosmos. Green wrote of Wordsworth looking to ‘the open scroll of the world, of the world, however, as written within and without by a self-conscious and self-determining spirit’ (Works, iii. 119), and such a spirit transcends the human mind. In any event, the culminating point of history is one at which ‘mind knows mind’, or final self-conscious freedom is grasped. Hegel also insists on holism, implying that a mind capable of knowing any truth must have the capacity to know all truth, since partial and divided truth is dead or non-existent.
The most influential exponent of
absolute idealism in Britain was Bradley, who actually eschewed the
label of idealism, but whose Appearance and Reality argued that
ordinary appearances were contradictory, and that to reconcile the
contradiction we must transcend them, appealing to a superior level
of reality, where harmony, freedom, truth and knowledge are all
characteristics of the one Absolute. An essential part of Bradley's
case was a preference, voiced much earlier by Leibniz, for
categorical, monadic properties over relations. He was particularly
troubled by the relation between that which is known and the mind
that knows it. The consolations of progress and unity with the
universe prompted the not wholly hostile verdict by James that the
Absolute was the banisher of cosmic fear, and the giver of moral
holidays. Absolute idealism was a major target of realists,
pragmatists, and of Russell and Moore in much of their writing at the
beginning of the 20th century, although it continued to be
influential for another twenty years.
The largely destroyed Pyramid of Djedefre Abu Rawash , 8 km to the North of Giza (coordinates 30°01'55?N 31°04'30?E), is the site of Egypt's most northerly pyramid, Also known as the lost pyramid — the mostly ruined Pyramid of Djedefre, the son and successor of Khufu. Originally, it was thought that this pyramid had never been completed, but the current archaeological consensus is that not only was it completed, but that it was built about the same size as the Pyramid of Menkaure – the third largest of the Giza pyramids. Its location adjacent to a major crossroads made it an easy source of stone. Quarrying – which began in Roman times – has left little apart from about 15 courses of stone superimposed upon the natural hillock that formed part of the pyramid's core. A small adjacent satellite pyramid is in a better state of preservation. Abu Roach See Abu Rawash
Abu Roash See Abu
Rawash Abusir is the name given to an Egyptian archaeological locality – specifically, an extensive necropolis of the Old Kingdom period, together with later additions – in the vicinity of the modern capital Cairo. The name is also that of a neighboring village in the Nile Valley, whence the site takes its name. Abusir is located several kilometers north of Saqqara and, like it, served as one of the main elite cemeteries for the ancient Egyptian capital city of Memphis. Several other villages in northern and southern Egypt are named Abusir or Busiri. Abusir is one relatively small segment of the extensive "pyramid field" that extends from north of Giza to below Saqqara, the locality of Abusir took its turn as the focus of the prestigious western burial rites operating out of the then-capital of Memphis during the Old Kingdom 5th Dynasty. As an elite cemetery, neighboring Giza had by then "filled up" with the massive pyramids and other monuments of the 4th Dynasty, leading the 5th Dynasty pharaohs to seek sites elsewhere for their own funerary monuments. Abusir was the origin of the largest find of Old Kingdom papyri to date — the Abusir Papyri. In the late nineteenth century, a number of Western museums acquired collections of fragmentary papyri from the administrative (temple) records of one Abusir funerary cult, that of king Neferirkare Kakai. This discovery was supplemented in the late twentieth century when excavations by a Czech expedition to the site revealed papyri from two other cult complexes, that of the pharaoh Neferefre and for the king's mother Khentkaus II. The Czech Institute of Egyptology has been conducting excavations at Abusir since 1976. They are presently directed by Miroslav Bárta. There are considerable catacombs near the ancient town of Busiris (Pliny xxxvi. 12. s. 16). To the south of Busiris one great cemetery appears to have stretched over the plain. The Heptanomite Busiris was in fact a hamlet standing at one extremity of the necropolis of Memphis. There are a total of fourteen pyramids at this site, which served as the main royal necropolis during the Fifth Dynasty. The quality of construction of the Abu Sir pyramids is inferior to those of the Fourth Dynasty – perhaps signaling a decrease in royal power or a less vibrant economy. They are smaller than their predecessors, and are built of low-quality local limestone.
The three major pyramids are those
of Niuserre (which is also the most intact), Neferirkare Kakai and
Sahure. The site is also home to the incomplete Pyramid of Neferefre.
All of the major pyramids at Abu Sir were built as step
pyramids, although the largest of them – the Pyramid of
Neferirkare Kakai – is believed to have originally been built as
a step pyramid some 70 meters high and then later transformed into a
"true" pyramid by having its steps filled in with loose masonry. The generic name derives from (akakia), the name given by early Greek botanist-physician Pedanius Dioscorides (ca. 40-90) to the medicinal tree A. nilotica in his book Materia Medica. This name derives from the Greek word for its characteristic thorns, (akis, thorn). The species name nilotica was given by Linnaeus from this tree's best-known range along the Nile river. Acacias are also known as thorntrees, whistling thorns or wattles, including the yellow-fever acacia and umbrella acacias. The genus Acacia previously contained roughly 1300 species, about 960 of them native to Australia, with the remainder spread around the tropical to warm-temperate regions of both hemispheres, including Europe, Africa, southern Asia, and the Americas. However, in 2005 the genus was divided into five separate genera. The name Acacia was retained for the majority of the Australian species and a few in tropical Asia, Madagascar and Pacific Islands. Most of the species outside Australia, and a small number of Australian species, were reclassified into Vachellia and Senegalia. The two final genera, Acaciella and Mariosousa, only contain about a dozen species from the Americas each. The Acacia is used as a symbol in Freemasonry, to represent purity and endurance of the soul, and as funerary symbolism signifying resurrection and immortality. The tree gains its importance from the description of the burial of Hiram Abiff, the builder of King Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. Egyptian mythology has associated the acacia tree with characteristics of the tree of life. Several parts (mainly bark, root and resin) of Acacia are used to make incense for rituals. Acacia is used in incense mainly in India, Nepal, and China including in its Tibet region. Smoke from Acacia bark is thought to keep demons and ghosts away and to put the gods in a good mood. Roots and resin from Acacia are combined with rhododendron, acorus, cytisus, salvia and some other components of incense. Both people and elephants like an alcoholic beverage made from acacia fruit. According to Easton's Bible Dictionary, the Acacia tree may be the “burning bush” (Exodus 3:2) which Moses encountered in the desert. Also, when God gave Moses the instructions for building the Tabernacle, he said to "make an ark "and "a table of acacia wood"(Exodus 25:10 & 23, Revised Standard Version) In Russia, Italy and other countries it is customary to present women with yellow mimosas (among other flowers) on International Women's Day (March 8). These "mimosas"are actually from Acacia dealbata (Silver Wattle).
Acedia describes a state of listlessness or torpor, of not caring or not being concerned with one's position or condition in the world. It can lead to a state of being unable to perform one's duties in life. Its spiritual overtones make it related to but distinct from depression. Acedia was originally noted as a problem among monks and other ascetics who maintained a solitary life. The Oxford Concise Dictionary of the Christian Church defines acedia (or accidie) as "a state of restlessness and inability either to work or to pray". Some see it as the precursor to sloth—one of the seven deadly sins.
See The
Seven Deadly Sins *acedia It was the largest that the ancient world had seen, extending from Anatolia and Egypt across western Asia to northern India and Central Asia. Its formation began in 550 B.C., when King Astyages of Media, who dominated much of Iran and eastern Anatolia (Turkey), was defeated by his southern neighbor Cyrus II ("the Great"), king of Persia (r. 559–530 B.C.). This upset the balance of power in the Near East. The Lydians of western Anatolia under King Croesus took advantage of the fall of Media to push east and clashed with Persian forces. The Lydian army withdrew for the winter but the Persians advanced to the Lydian capital at Sardis, which fell after a two-week siege. The Lydians had been allied with the Babylonians and Egyptians and Cyrus now had to confront these major powers. The Babylonian empire controlled Mesopotamia and the eastern Mediterranean. In 539 B.C., Persian forces defeated the Babylonian army at the site of Opis, east of the Tigris. Cyrus entered Babylon and presented himself as a traditional Mesopotamian monarch, restoring temples and releasing political prisoners. The one western power that remained unconquered in Cyrus' lightning campaigns was Egypt. It was left to his son Cambyses to rout the Egyptian forces in the eastern Nile Delta in 525 B.C. After a ten-day siege, Egypt's ancient capital Memphis fell to the Persians. A crisis at court forced Cambyses to return to Persia but he died en route and Darius I ("the Great") emerged as king (r. 521–486 B.C.), claiming in his inscriptions that a certain "Achaemenes" was his ancestor. Under Darius the empire was stabilized, with roads for communication and a system of governors (satraps) established. He added northwestern India to the Achaemenid realm and initiated two major building projects: the construction of royal buildings at Susa and the creation of the new dynastic center of Persepolis, the buildings of which were decorated by Darius and his successors with stone reliefs and carvings. These show tributaries from different parts of the empire processing toward the enthroned king or conveying the king's throne. The impression is of a harmonious empire supported by its numerous peoples. Darius also consolidated Persia's western conquests in the Aegean. However, in 498 B.C., the eastern Greek Ionian cities, supported in part by Athens, revolted. It took the Persians four years to crush the rebellion, although an attack against mainland Greece was repulsed at Marathon in 490 B.C. Darius' son Xerxes (r. 486–465 B.C.) attempted to force the mainland Greeks to acknowledge Persian power, but Sparta and Athens refused to give way. Xerxes led his sea and land forces against Greece in 480 B.C., defeating the Spartans at the battle of Thermopylae and sacking Athens. However, the Greeks won a victory against the Persian navy in the straits of Salamis in 479 B.C. It is possible that at this point a serious revolt broke out in the strategically crucial province of Babylonia. Xerxes quickly left Greece and successfully crushed the Babylonian rebellion. However, the Persian army he left behind was defeated by the Greeks at the Battle of Plataea in 479 B.C.
Much of our evidence for Persian
history is dependent on contemporary Greek sources and later
classical writers, whose main focus is the relations between Persia
and the Greek states, as well as tales of Persian court intrigues,
moral decadence, and unrestrained luxury. From these we learn that
Xerxes was assassinated and was succeeded by one of his sons, who
took the name Artaxerxes I (r. 465–424 B.C). During his reign,
revolts in Egypt were crushed and garrisons established in the
Levant. The empire remained largely intact under Darius II (r.
423–405 B.C), but Egypt claimed independence during the reign of
Artaxerxes II (r. 405–359 B.C). Although Artaxerxes II had the
longest reign of all the Persian kings, we know very little about
him. Writing in the early second century A.D., Plutarch describes him
as a sympathetic ruler and courageous warrior. With his successor,
Artaxerxes III (r. 358–338 B.C), Egypt was reconquered, but the
king was assassinated and his son was crowned as Artaxerxes IV (r.
338–336 B.C.). He too was murdered and replaced by Darius III
(r. 336–330 B.C.), a second cousin, who faced the armies of
Alexander III of Macedon ("the Great"). Ultimately Darius
III was murdered by one of his own generals and Alexander claimed the
Persian empire. However, the fact that Alexander had to fight every
inch of the way, taking every province by force, demonstrates the
extraordinary solidarity of the Persian empire and that, despite the
repeated court intrigues, it was certainly not in a state of decay. Achaia was a region of Greece on the north coast of the Peloponnesus. The topography of Achaia was filled with mountains and therefore was difficult to travel through and this was one of the reasons why ancient Greece was difficult to unify. The geography of Greece forced most of the population to dwell in the beautiful sea ports and thus spread their culture throughout the Mediterranean. Achaia was a Roman Province in New Testament times. Paul spent much time there and expressed his love toward the churches in Achaia, and commended them for their liberal giving.
2 Corinthians 1:1 - Paul,
an Apostle of Jesus
Christ by the will of God,
and Timothy [our] brother, unto the church of God which is at
Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia:
Acta Timothei See
Acts of Timothy The Acts of Andrew. Most scholars are comfortable assigning a date between 150 and 200 CE, but some think it could even have been written earlier; others claim it was written much later! Such discussions are derived from the text itself. Reasons suggesting an earlier date are derived from the fact that there is no sense of organizational or ecclesiastical structure. Nor is there concern that some of its teachings might be unorthodox, or that it was the subject of polemical attacks. These Acts appear to have been written before the Church decided upon a particular Christology, and there is not much information about the life and times of Jesus. These texts involve post-resurrection experiences. Other scholars have noticed many similarities with the Acts of John (see last month's entry), and assume that the author of Andrew used them for source material, which suggests a much later date. There is another text known as the Acts of Andrew and Matthias, which scholars originally thought was part of these Acts. Most modern scholars have now rejected that theory. Acts of Andrew From "The Apocryphal New Testament" M.R. James-Translation and Notes Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924 Introduction We have no ancient record of the length of this book, as we had in the cases of John, Paul, and Peter (but I suspect it was the most prolix of all the five), and we have fewer relics of the original text than for those. We have, however, a kind of abstract of the whole, written in Latin by Gregory of Tours: and there are Greek Encomia of the apostle which also help to the reconstruction of the story. The Martyrdom (as in other cases) exists separately, in many texts. Max Bonnet has established the relations of these to each other: and J. Flamion has made a most careful study of all the fragments. The best specimen of the original text which we have is a fragment preserved in a Vatican MS., tenth-eleventh centuries, containing discourses of Andrew shortly before his passion. There are also a few ancient quotations. These Acts may be the latest of the five leading apostolic romances. They belong to the third century: C. A. D. 260? It was formerly thought that the Acts of Andrew and Matthias (Matthew) were an episode of the original romance: but this view has ceased to be held. That legend is akin to the later Egyptian romances about the apostles of which an immense number were produced in the fifth and later centuries. An abstract of them will be given in due course. The epitome by Gregory of Tours is considered by Flamion to give on the whole the best idea of the contents of the original Acts. The latest edition of it is that by M. Bonnet in the Monumenta Germaniac Historica (Greg. Turon. II. 821-47). The greater part appears as Lib. III of the Historia Apostolica of (Pseudo-)Abdias, in a text much altered, it seems, in the sixteenth century by Wolfgang Lazius: reprinted in Fabricius' Cod. Apocr. N. T. Gregory's prologue is as follows: The famous triumphs of the apostles are, I believe, not unknown to any of the faithful, for some of them are taught us in the pages of the gospel, others are related in the Acts of the Apostles, and about some of them books exist in which the actions of each apostle are recorded; yet of the more part we have nothing but their Passions in writing. Now I have come upon a book on the miracles (virtues, great deeds) of St. Andrew the apostle, which, because of its excessive verbosity, was called by some apocryphal. And of this I thought good to extract and set out the 'virtues' only, omitting all that bred weariness, and so include the wonderful miracles within the compass of one small volume, which might both please the reader and ward off the spite of the adverse critic: for it is not the multitude of words, but the soundness of reason and the purity of mind that produce unblemished faith. Read the full abstract, not a version, of Gregory's text here
The Acts of Andrew and Matthias among the Anthropophagi" which exists in several Latin manuscript traditions, is the dramatic romance featuring the Apostles Andrew and Matthias among the cannibals, a thriller featuring gory details that was written for a Christian audience in the 2nd century CE. Constantin von Tischendorf published an edited text following Johann Karl Thilo, 1846. Acta Andreae et Matthiae in urbe anthropophagarum, according to Richard Adelbert Lipsius, belonged to the middle of the 2nd century. This apocryphal text relates that Matthias went among the cannibals and, being cast into prison, was delivered by Andrew. The narrative is considered to be a Romance and is understood to have no historical value. Heinz Hofmann classes it "secondary apocrypha", that is, one derived from apocryphal sources; the ghoulish man-eaters remind Hofmann of the killing of Socrates by the witch Meroë in Apuleius' Metamorphoses, better known as The Golden Ass Among the Latin texts of the Acta Andreae et Mattiae, F. Blatt notes how the mss in Codex Casanatensis particularly expands upon the horror to describe the instruments and vessels the cannibals use for the slaughter. Read The Original Text of The Acts of Andrew and Matthew here The text of the pseudepigraphical Acts of Barnabas claims to identify its author as "John Mark," the companion of Paul, as if writing an account of Barnabas, the Cypriot Jew who was a member of the earliest church at Jerusalem; through the services of Barnabas the convert Saul was welcomed into the apostolic community. Three pseudepigraphical works are linked with the name of Barnabas: the Epistle of Barnabas, written between AD 70 and 135, this Acts and the medieval text Gospel of Barnabas. None of them were accepted into the Biblical canon. The language and the ecclesiastical politics of Acts of Barnabas reveal it to be a work of the 5th century, designed to strengthen the claims of the church of Cyprus to apostolic foundation as the site of Barnabas' grave, and therefore of its bishops' independence from the patriarch of Antioch. These are 5th century concerns, the independence of the Church of Cyprus having been declared by the First Council of Ephesus in 431 and confirmed by Emperor Zeno in 488. It was translated and edited by M. R. James; his version has remained a standard in English. Some have mistakenly assumed that the reference to a gospel used by Barnabas referred to in the Acts of Barnabas was the medieval document, the Gospel of Barnabas. However, this is clearly false, as the quotation reveals: Barnabas, having unrolled the Gospel, which we have received from Matthew his fellow-labourer, began to teach the Jews. By omitting this emphasized phrase in quoting this passage, the impression may be given that there is a Gospel of Barnabas earlier than the so-called "Decretum Gelasianum", an agenda for those who would maintain the late Gospel's authenticity. Read The Original Text of Acts of Barnabas here
The traditional author was said to be one Leucius Charinus, a companion of John, who was associated with several 2nd century "Acts." Conventionally, the Acts of John was ascribed to Prochorus, one of the Seven Deacons discussed in Acts of the Apostles. "It is difficult to know when the Acts of John was composed, but many scholars locate it to the second half of the second century." It may have originated as a Christianized wonder tale, designed for an urban Hellenic audience accustomed to such things as having one's portrait painted (the setting for one episode), living in that part of the province of Asia.
"It is widely recognized that the surviving Acts of John derives from several sources; most scholars recognize that a large portion of the text (chaps. 87–105, or just 94–102) as we now have it was interpolated at a later time into the narrative." The Acts of John was eventually rejected by the orthodox church for its docetic overtones. After this decision made by the Second Council of Nicaea in AD 787, most of the existing copies of the apocryphal book were destroyed, undoubtedly destroying most of the copies in existence at the time. However, although the Acts of John was condemned as heretical, a large fragment survives in Greek manuscripts of widely varying date. In two medieval Greek versions, the magical survival of John when put to tortures will be familiar to any reader of hagiography: "He was brought before Domitian, and made to drink poison, which did not hurt him: the dregs of it killed a criminal on whom it was tried: and John revived him; he also raised a girl who was slain by an unclean spirit." (James 1924, Introduction).
The surviving Latin fragments, by contrast, seem to have been purged of unorthodox content, according to their translator M. R. James: the Latin fragments contain episodes now missing in the Greek. The Stichometry of Nicephorus gives its length as 2500 lines. An on-line translation presents the confrontation of John and Domitian during Domitian's persecution of Christians, described as instigated by a letter of complaint from the Jews. Content
As with the other works of the Acts of the Apostles genre, the text pertains to narratives set within the framework of the years following the crucifixion and subsequent resurrection of Jesus described by early Christian writings and traditions. Specifically, the account narrates two journeys of John, son of Zebedee, to Ephesus, filled with dramatic events, miracles, and teachings attributed to the apostle. Existing copies of the manuscript begin in section 19, in which a small group that includes both the author of the work and John is approaching Ephesus, only to be met by Lycomedes, a notable and powerful figure within the city. Lycomedes recounts a vision he received from the God of John, telling him that a man from Miletus was coming to heal his wife, Cleopatra, who had died seven days before from illness. Upon arrival, Lycomedes curses his situation and, despite John's pleas to have faith that his wife will be brought back to life by the power of God, falls dead out of grief. The entire city of Ephesus is stirred by his death and comes to his house to see his body. John then asks Christ to raise the two of them from the dead in order to prove Christ's own might, quoting Matthew 7:7 in his request. Both Cleopatra and Lycomedes are resurrected, leaving the people of Ephesus in awe of the miracle that was performed before them. Later, during a festival celebrating the birthday of the Greek goddess Artemis, the people of Ephesus attempt to kill John because he wears black, rather than white, to her temple. John rebukes them, threatening to have his God kill them if they are unable to convince their goddess to make him die on the spot with her divine power. Knowing that John has performed many miracles in their city, the people at the temple beg John not to destroy them. John then changes his mind, using the power of God instead to break the altar of Artemis in many pieces, damage the offerings and idols within the temple, and collapse half of the structure itself on top of its priest, killing him. Upon seeing this destruction, the people immediately see the error of their ways and acknowledge the God of John as the only true God. In a more comical account mentioned in the narrative, John, the author, and their companions stay overnight at an inn plagued with a bedbug infestation. Immediately after lying down, the author and the other men with him see that John is troubled by the bugs and hear him tell the insects, "I say to you, you bugs, be considerate; leave your home for this night and go to rest in a place which is far away from the servants of God!" The next morning, the author, joined by two of his traveling companions, Verus and Andronicus, awakes to find the bugs gathered in the doorway, waiting to return to their home in John's mattress. The three men wake John, who allows the creatures to return to the bed because of their obedience to the will of God. Immediately following John's encounter with the bedbugs, the traveling party journeys to the house of Andronicus in Ephesus in section 62. Here, the reader learns that Andronicus is married to Drusiana, a devout believer in God who remains chaste even in marriage out of piety. However, her celibacy does not prevent the advances of Callimachus, a prominent member of the Ephesian community and "a servant of Satan." Shortly after learning this, Drusiana falls sick and dies because she believes she has contributed to Callimachus's sin. While John is comforting Andronicus and many of the other inhabitants of Ephesus over the loss of Drusiana, Callimachus, determined to have Drusiana as his own, pays Andronicus's steward, Fortunatus, so that he may gain access to her tomb and rape her corpse. However, Callimachus discovers that the tomb is guarded by a poisonous snake, which bites and kills Fortunatus. Callimachus still attempts to rape the corpse of Druisiana, only to find a beautiful youth, protecting the body of Druisiana. The youth commands Callimachus to, "die, that you may live." The next day, John and Andronicus enter the tomb of Drusiana and are greeted by the beautiful youth, which the narrative later identifies with Christ, who tells John he is supposed to raise Drusiana back to life before ascending into Heaven. John does so, but not before resurrecting Callimachus in order to learn what had occurred the previous night. Callimachus recounts the events of the night and is repentant of his misgivings, surrendering to the will of Christ. After both Callimachus and Drusiana are resurrected, Drusiana, feeling sorry for the other aggressor involved in the conspiracy to molest her dead body, is granted the ability to raise Fortunatus back from the dead against the wishes of Callimachus. Fortunatus, unwilling to accept Christ, flees from the tomb and eventually dies due to blood poisoning brought about by the snake from the initial bite. In the final portion of the text, John offers a long and mysterious discourse to the people of Ephesus concerning the nature of Christ and faith.
It also contains the episode at the Last Supper of the Round Dance or Circle Dance of the Cross initiated by Jesus, saying, "Before I am delivered to them, let us sing a hymn to the Father and so go to meet what lies before us". Directed to form a circle around him, holding hands and dancing, the apostles cry "Amen" to the hymn of Jesus.
Embedded in the text is another hymn (sections 94 – 96), "which no doubt was once used as a liturgical song (with response) in some Johannine communities" (Davis). In the summer of 1916 Gustav Holst set his own translation from the Greek (Head), influenced by G.R.S. Mead, as The Hymn of Jesus for two mixed choirs, a semi-chorus of female voices, and a large orchestra (Trippett).
Most of its docetic imagery and
overt gnostic teachings are concentrated in a few chapters
(94–102 and 109), which may be interpolations, or they may
simply reflect the diverse nature of the sources that were drawn upon
to assemble this episodic collection, which falls in the genre of Romance. The discovery of a Coptic version of the text, demonstrated that the text was composed of
All of these constituent parts were often considered worth treating as separate texts, and frequently appeared independently, although scholars agree that they were originally part of the Acts of Paul. Besides the four main sections mentioned above, the remainder of the Acts exist only in fragments from the 3rd and 5th centuries:
The texts are a coherent whole, and generally thought to have been written by one author using oral traditions, rather than basing it on any of the other apocrypha or the orthodox canon. The main emphasis of the text is on Chastity and anti-Gnosticism. According to Tertullian, the author was a priest in Asia Minor. While the priest encouraged female ministry, it did have doctrinal orthodoxy in regards to continence and Resurrection. Also, they mentioned the close relationship of sexual purity and salvation. The Epistle of the Corinthians to Paul and the Third Epistle of the Corinthians both appear in some editions of the Armenian Bible. Acts of Paul consists of the third letter to the Corinthians, an account of his martyrdom, and other narratives depicting his preaching and activity. There is a range of literature either about or purporting to be by Paul, including letters, narratives, prayers, and apocalypses. The pseudonymous Third Letter to the Corinthians claims to have been written from prison to correct the misinterpretations that his first and second letter had created. In his first letter to the Corinthians, he stated that "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God" and this statement is not unrelated to the debates that ensued between the Gnostic and proto-orthodox Christians thereafter. A Christian concerned to emphasize that people would be physically resurrected rather than merely spiritually forged 3 Corinthians to counter what the Gnostics were saying, presumably because their argument was gaining much ground. The Acts of Paul also appear to be familiar with the traditional account about the martyrdom of Peter, in which, having been arrested and condemned to death, Peter asked to be crucified head-down because he wasn't worthy of having the same death as Jesus. See Our Page Books Not Found In the Bible
The Acts of Paul and Thecla is an apocryphal
story— Goodspeed called it a "religious romance"—
of St Paul's influence on a
young virgin named Thecla. It is one
of the writings of the New
Testament apocrypha.
Acts of Peter The Acts of Peter is one of the earliest of the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles. The majority of the text has survived only in the Latin translation of the Vercelli manuscript, under the title Actus Petri cum Simone. It is mainly notable for a description of a miracle contest between Saint Peter and Simon Magus, and as the first record of the tradition that St. Peter was crucified head-down. The Acts of Peter was originally composed in Greek during the second half of the 2nd century, probably in Asia Minor. Consensus among academics points to it being based on the Acts of John, and traditionally both works were said to be written by Leucius Charinus, whom Epiphanius identifies as the companion of John. In the text Peter performs miracles such as resurrecting smoked fish, and making dogs talk. Some versions give accounts of stories on the theme of a woman/women who prefer paralysis to sex; sometimes, including in a version from the Berlin Codex, the woman is the daughter of Peter. The text condemns Simon Magus, a figure associated with gnosticism, who appears to have concerned the writer of the text greatly. Peter preaches that Simon is performing magic in order to convert followers through deception. In Peter's outrage, he challenges Simon to a contest in order to prove whose works are from a divine source and whose are merely trickery. It is said that Simon Magus takes flight and Peter strikes him down with the power of God and prays that Simon be not killed but that he be badly injured. When the Magus falls from the sky he suffers a broken leg in three places, then the converted believers of Peter stone him from the city. The Acts then continue to say that he was taken to Terracina to one Castor "And there he was sorely cut (Lat. by two physicians), and so Simon the angel of Satan came to his end.". Following this incident, Peter is going to flee the city; however, he sees an apparition of Jesus and takes it as a message that he must stay and be crucified to see Jesus again in Heaven. Peter requests to be crucified upside-down because he does not believe that a man is worthy to be killed in the same manner as Jesus Christ. These concluding chapters describing Peter's crucifixion are preserved separately as the "Martyrdom of Peter" in three Greek manuscripts and in Coptic (fragmentary), Syriac, Ethiopic, Arabic, Armenian, and Slavonic versions. Because of this, it is sometimes proposed that the martyrdom account was the original text to which the preceding chapters were affixed. Read The Acts of Peter here See Our Page Books Not In The Bible The text appears to have been aimed to be a continuation of the Acts of Andrew and Matthias (which was a portion of the Acts of Andrew that was sometimes found as a separate work). The Acts of Peter and Andrew is a short 3rd-century text from the New Testament apocrypha, not to be confused with either the Acts of Andrew or the Acts of Peter. The text is unusual in apparently containing no attempt at espousing doctrine, and is likely simply to have been a work of literature rather than theology. The text consists of a series of extremely long tales of miracles, such as Andrew riding a cloud to where Peter is, and Peter literally putting a camel through the eye of the needle, turning the traditional metaphor (it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven) on its head. Read The Acts of Peter and Andrew here The Acts of Peter and Paul is a late text from the New Testament apocrypha, thought to date from after the 4th century. An alternate version exists, known as the Passion of Peter and Paul, with variances in the introductory part of the text. The text is framed as the tale of Paul's journey from the island of Gaudomeleta to Rome. It assigns Peter as Paul's brother. It also describes the death of Paul by beheading, an early church tradition. The text also contains a letter purporting to be from Pilate, known as Acts of Pilate. The work appears to have been based on the Acts of Peter, with the addition of Paul's presence where before it was only Peter's. See also Our Page - Books Mentioned But Not Found In The Bible
The text contains two parts, an initial allegory, and a subsequent gnostic exposition of its meaning. The allegory is thought to have been originally a work in its own right, and to have dated in that form from around the 2nd century. The allegory describes the tale, similar to the Parable of the Pearl in the Gospel of Matthew, of a pearl merchant who is selling a pearl at a great price (note—this text is not to be confused with the Mormon scripture The Pearl of Great Price). The merchant is shunned by the rich but the poor attend him in droves, and learn that the pearl is kept at the home city of the merchant, "Nine Gates", rather than being carried on him. As such those who desire it must trek the arduous journey to Nine Gates. The name of the merchant is Lithargoel, which the text translates as being "lightweight, glistening stone", i.e. the merchant himself is the "pearl". Ultimately the merchant reveals himself to be Jesus. See also Our Page - Books Mentioned But Not Found In The Bible
The Greek Acts of Philip is an unorthodox episodic apocryphal mid-to late fourth-century narrative, originally in fifteen separate acta, that gives an accounting of the miraculous acts performed by the Apostle Philip, with overtones of the heroic romance. Some of these episodes are identifiable as belonging to more closely related "cycles". Two episodes recounting events of Philip's commission (3 and 8) have survived in both shorter and longer versions. There is no commission narrative in the surviving texts: Philip's authority rests on the prayers and benediction of Peter and John and is explicitly bolstered by a divine epiphany, in which the voice of Jesus urges "Hurry Philip! Behold, my angel is with you, do not neglect your task" and "Jesus is secretly walking with him".(ch. 3). The Acts of Philip is most completely represented by a text discovered in 1974 by François Bovon and Bertrand Bouvier in the library of Xenophontos monastery on Mount Athos in Greece. The manuscript dates from the fourteenth century but its language identifies it as a copy of a fourth-century original. Many of the narratives in the manuscript were already known from other sources, but some were hitherto unknown. The narrative claims that Jesus sent out a group of followers to spread his message. The followers were Philip, Bartholomew, and— a leading figure in the second half of the text— a woman named Mariamne, who is identified in the text as Philip's sister, and who Bovon at first suggested may be identical to Mary Magdalene. However, following the Discovery Channel's popularized speculations in The Lost Tomb of Jesus, Bovon publicly distanced himself from its claims, withdrawing his published assertion (Bovon 2002) that the Mariamne of the Talpiot tomb discussed in The Lost Tomb of Jesus is the same person, writing in an open letter to the Society of Biblical Literature: the Mariamne of the Acts of Philip is part of the apostolic team with Philip and Bartholomew; she teaches and baptizes: Philip baptizes men, Mary baptizes women. In the beginning, her faith is stronger than Philip's faith. This portrayal of Mariamne fits very well with the portrayal of Mary of Magdala in the Manichean Psalms, the Gospel of Mary, and Pistis Sophia. My interest is not historical, but on the level of literary traditions. I have suggested this identification in 1984 already in an article of New Testament Studies. The text discovered by Bovon also described a community that practised vegetarianism and celibacy. Women in the community wore men's clothes and held positions of authority comparable to men, serving as priests and deacons. The community used a form of the eucharist where vegetables and water were consumed in place of bread and wine. Among lesser miraculous accomplishments of the group were the conversion of a talking leopard and a talking goat, as well as the slaying of a dragon. "Speaking animals as helpers of the apostles are familiar figures in the apostolic Acts" (Czachesz 2002). The manuscript discovered by Bovon has been published in a French translation. An English translation was planned "within a few years" (as of 2000). Previous English translations, such as in M.R. James are based on the collections of fragments that were known previous to Bovon's discovery.
This text is sometimes called the Book of the Acts of Solomon or Book of the Chronicles of Solomon See also Our Page - Books Mentioned But Not Found In The Bible
Fifth book of the New Testament tracing growth of early church, sometimes called the fifth Gospel. The Acts of the Apostles, usually referred to simply as Acts, is the fifth book of the New Testament; Acts outlines the history of the Apostolic Age. The author is traditionally identified as Luke the Evangelist, a physician and friend of Paul (Saul of Tarsus). The second part of a two-part history of the early church, traditionally by the author of the Gospel of Luke. Luke-Acts comprises the largest amount of material supplied by a single author in the NT.
Several indications point to the
probability that Acts was in fact written by the same person who
wrote Luke:
(c) numerous parallels in author's focus exist between the two books (for example, an emphasis on the
The name of the author is not given in the text. From considerations of convenience and convention he may be called Luke, though the book was not associated with him before the latter part of the 2nd century A.D. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies III 13, 3). The author was an eyewitness of and participant in some of the events described in the latter part of the book. These are the famous "we passages" (16:10-17; 20:5-15; 21:1-18; 27:1-28:16), in which events are described in the first person. Here the narrative reads as if it had been taken from a personal diary. These passages indicate that the author was closely associated with Paul, and this is borne out by the fact that the bulk of Acts deals with the evangelizing efforts of Paul. The events described come to an abrupt end with Paul's arrival in Rome and subsequent two-year stay there, i.e., about A.D. 60. While this is a reasonably accurate starting point, estimates have varied widely as to the actual date of composition, ranging from Harnack's A.D. 63-64 to as late as A.D. 150 (when it was clearly used by Marcion). There are indications that Acts may have been known by Clement of Rome, and this would give us a latest date of 95. Attempts to narrow down the date of composition further are necessarily based on arguments of omission. So, for example, Acts does not mention a journey by Paul to Spain (cf Rom 15:24, 28) nor Nero's persecution and Paul's death c.64. Considering that Acts was composed after Luke's gospel, the dating of the latter relative to the destruction of the Temple in 70 comes into the picture. If passage like Luke 19:41-44 and 21:20ff be taken as evidence of a post-70 composition of Luke, then Acts must also be later. Thus Acts is commonly dated between A.D. 80 and 90. Although the place of writing cannot be determined from internal evidence (unless, of course, it was written soon after the last events described in Rome), one tradition assigns it to the capital of the Empire. Other sites mentioned are Achaia, Ephesus and Antioch. Acts is a unique contemporary account of the history of the early church, and no similar narrative has survived. The book serves as a vital sequel to the story of the life of Jesus and a transition to the letters written by leaders of the movement he left behind. From these letters, especially those of Paul, it would have been possible to reconstruct some of that history, but it would have been a reconstruction lacking in broad areas of information. As it is, the narrowed focus of Luke leaves much that is unexplained. Nowhere does he tell us how the gospel was taken to Egypt or eastwards into Syria nor, for that matter, to Rome itself. Indeed, he gives us no report of the progress of the church in an area as close and important as Galilee. Luke's focus is exclusively on two individuals, Peter and Paul, and others (with the exception of Stephen in chapters 6 and 7) are mentioned only as they incidentally cross the paths of these two. Acts may conveniently be broken down on the basis of its treatment of Peter and Paul. With the noted exception of Stephen's chapters, Peter figures prominently in the first 12 chapters. He is clearly the spokesman, the leader, and the dominant figure; this is consistent with Luke's earlier recorded words of Jesus (Luke 22:31-32) that he had selected Peter for just such a role. From chapter 13 on, the focus shifts entirely to Paul and Acts necessarily becomes a kind of travelogue as Paul embarks on a succession of "missionary journeys". Another way of understanding the progression of the book is best set out in 1:8: "you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." Luke is relating the story of the spread of the gospel, starting from Jerusalem and finally arriving in Rome. It is a story of men bearing testimony. Chapters 1-7 take place in Jerusalem, chapter 8 in Samaria; chapter 9 moves momentarily to a community of believers in Syria and then tells of the gospel's spread in other parts of Judea. With the gospel being taken to the Gentiles in chapter 10, the stage is set for expansion into the surrounding countries in the remaining chapters. At least two threads may be seen as running through the book in the preaching of the apostles. First and foremost is the message of Jesus' death and resurrection. According to Luke's account (seconded by Paul's letters) the apostolic preaching placed surprisingly little emphasis on the teachings of Jesus. The message of the church of Acts was straight and simple: "God anointed him ? they put him to death? God raised him up" (10:38-40; cf 2:22-24; 3:15; 5:30; 13:23, 28-30; 17:3, 31). The second thread is the emphasis on the Holy Spirit as the motivating, guiding force in the young community. Until Paul's arrest in chapter 22, the Holy Spirit figures in no less than 16 chapters, and it is for this reason that some commentators have suggested that the book might be called "The Acts of the Holy Spirit". Finally, the book of Acts describes the onset of the process by which the fledgling church found itself increasingly separated from Judaism. It was a gradual development and certainly not an obviously necessary outcome from the beginning. The earliest church of Jewish Christians (variously called "the brethren", "the way", "the disciples", "Nazarenes") was in fact just one of several Jewish sects. As long as they refrained from proselytizing activities among members of other sects, they seem to have lived peacefully in Palestine among their Jewish brothers. The 27-year period of events in Palestine depicted in Acts records only five instances of conflicts between the church and their fellow Jews (4:1ff; 5:17ff; 6:9-8:3; 12:1ff; 21:27ff). Outside of the land, Paul's aggressive preaching met with opposition from some zealots (e.g., 13:45ff; 17:5, 13), and on these occasions Paul usually vowed to take his message to the Gentiles. But Luke faithfully records that wherever Paul went, he invariably chose the synagogue as the first place he preached. The book ends with Paul in the capital of the empire, preaching the gospel there. The most significant help in discovering the author of Acts is simply recognizing this book's relationship to the Gospel of Luke: 1) Both books begin with a greeting to a man named Theophilus (“friend of God”); 2) Acts' greeting to Theophilus refers to a previous writing; 3) The end of Luke intentionally overlaps with the beginning of Acts to provide continuity between the two volumes; 4) the author's writing style, vocabulary, and attention to specific themes remain constant throughout both books. Consequently, the reader must assume Acts was written by the same author as the gospel of Luke. In fact, many Bible readers believe Luke-Acts is a single work which was divided into two parts as the books of the New Testament were gathered together. The size of Luke and Acts combined makes the author of these two books the chief contributor to the New Testament, having written twenty-five percent of all Scripture from the Christian era. Taken as a whole, Luke and Acts are a larger work than the combined letters of Paul. Once readers assume Luke and Acts come from the same pen, they can begin to look for evidence within these books which points toward the author's identity. How can we tell the person who wrote these books was named Luke? The first piece of evidence comes in Luke 1:2. There, the writer states he was not an eyewitness to the ministry of Jesus. This fact eliminates any of the eleven disciples as candidates for authorship. Next, the “we” passages in Acts also offer a major, internal clue to the identity of the book's author. During the account of Paul's missionary journeys, the author occasionally changes his style from that of a third person observer to a first person participant. In Acts 16:10-17; Acts 20:5-16; Acts 21:1-18; and Acts 27:1-28:16, the author speaks of “we” and “us” in relationship to Paul's travels. The language implies the author himself traveled with Paul. These “we” sections include the time when Paul was imprisoned at Rome. Scholars have determined Paul wrote Philemon, Colossians, and the Pastoral Epistles during his house arrest in that city. By searching those letters for references to Paul's fellow workers, they compiled a list of companions who could have written Luke and Acts. In 2 Timothy 4:11, Paul says, “Only Luke is with me,” making him the most likely person to have written Luke-Acts. Students of the first century church confirm the likelihood of Luke's authorship with what they call the “negative” argument. This negative argument recognizes the early church's tendency to attribute the authorship of New Testament works to recognized apostles and eyewitnesses of the ministry of the Master. We have no reason to assume early Christians would have given credit for the authorship of Luke-Acts to such an insignificant figure as Luke unless they possessed firm evidence the doctor, traveling companion of Paul, did indeed write this important document. The facts surrounding the authorship of Acts are not merely intended to bolster the knowledge of persons interested in Bible trivia. Knowing Luke wrote Acts is crucial for understanding this book. Unless readers see in Acts the continuation of themes and emphases which Luke began in his Gospel, they will miss some of the most vital helps available to them for interpreting Acts. Unless readers see the purpose of Acts as a direct continuation of the purpose of Luke, they will miss the main thrust of the book. The Purpose of Acts Why did Luke write Acts? What purpose was the Spirit leading him to fulfill? The years have produced several different answers to those questions. The opening verses of Luke and Acts mention Theophilus as the recipient of Luke's writings. As mentioned earlier, the name means “friend of God” and was common among Jews and Greeks in the first century. Many Bible students think Theophilus was a Roman dignitary sympathetic to the Christian cause. Perhaps Luke was writing a defense of Christianity for this official during a time of persecution to show him there was nothing subversive or sinister about the followers of Jesus. The geographical framework of Acts, the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem to Rome, lends credibility to this idea. In addition to Luke's possible purpose as an interpreter of Christianity to the Roman world, Paul's traveling companion seems to have perceived himself specifically as a recorder of God's saving work. In Luke 1:3 of his Gospel, Luke clearly states he is trying to make “an orderly account” of the events surrounding Jesus' ministry. The only question which remains is Luke's reason for dividing his record of those events into Luke and Acts as he did. The obvious solution to this question would be that Luke focuses on Jesus Himself while Acts focuses on the followers of Jesus who continued their Master's work. This solution misses one important verse, Acts 1:1, where Luke says to Theophilus: “In my former book&ldots; I wrote about all Jesus began to do and teach&ldots;” Luke implied that Jesus continued to do and teach more, and that His story was incomplete where the Gospel ended. In fact, a careful reading of Acts makes it clear that Jesus remained the active, living, focus of Luke's story. In Acts 9:4 (NIV), Jesus spoke directly to Saul and asked, “Why do you persecute me?” Later, in the same chapter, Peter could say directly to Aeneas, “Jesus Christ heals you” (Acts 9:34 NIV). In chapter ten, Christ made His will known to Peter concerning a ministry to the Gentiles. These are but three examples of Jesus' vital involvement in the spread of the gospel in Acts. Therefore, despite the fact Acts begins with the ascension of Jesus, there is no evidence anyone in the early church perceived Him as “gone” from their midst. He healed, spoke, and directed the work of His disciples. Even when they preached, the disciples thought of Jesus as literally present in their preaching. They asked the listeners of those first sermons, not merely to believe facts about Jesus, but to encounter through their words the One who died, rose again, and lives forever. The ascension marked not Christ's departure, but a change in the way Christ performs His ministry of salvation and grace. Consequently, Acts is the continuing story of Jesus' work. It simply begins once He is no longer bound by the limitations of time and space. Acts tells what happened following the ascension when Jesus started to work through His new body, which is the church. Themes of Luke Continued in Acts Because the story begun in Luke (the saving work of God) continues in Acts with the same central character (Jesus), one must expect the central themes of Luke to continue in Acts as well. What are the themes which express Luke's personal understanding of the gospel and give his record of Jesus' story his unique touch?
Acts' Story A final help for understanding the second part of Luke's larger work is a brief outline of the book's contents. As mentioned earlier, Acts 1:8 provides the framework for Acts as Jesus' message and influence moved outward from Jerusalem to the farthest point of the earth. Acts 1-7 focus on the early church in Jerusalem. This part of the book tells of the early successes (Acts 2:41) and the early persecutions (Acts 4:1-22). The life of the church in these chapters is marked by tremendous cooperation and mutual assistance (Acts 2:42-47). At the same time, however, changes and expansion put a serious strain on the fellowship as the church tried to seek Christ's will (Acts 6:1). The death of Stephen in Acts 7:1 marks the beginning of a transition in the story as heightened pressure from Jewish authorities forced many Christians to leave Jerusalem. God used the intended evil of the persecutors to help spread the gospel in Judea and Samaria. The conversion of Paul (Acts 9:1-30) and Peter's new openness to a Gentile ministry (Acts 10:1) made possible the spread of the gospel to all the world. The transitional part of Acts continues in Acts 11-13 as Peter convinced others in Jerusalem that Gentiles needed to hear the gospel as much as the Jews (Acts 11:1-18). The dispersion of Christians from Jerusalem during the persecution there resulted in a strong church at Antioch (Acts 11:19-30). By Acts 13:1, the influence and missionary efforts of the church at Antioch began to surpass those of the church in Jerusalem. It is the vision of the Christians in Antioch which shaped the remaining chapters of Acts. Their sensitivity to God's Spirit resulted in the three missionary journeys of Paul and the spread of the gospel throughout Asia Minor and, ultimately, to Europe and Rome. Paul's arrival at Rome marked the advent of Christ's message at the very seat of civilization and the symbolic completion of His mission which began in Acts 1:8. Outline I. God Prepared for Jesus' Mission to Continue (Acts 1:1-7:69).
A. Jesus' resurrection and
ascension prepared for the Spirit's coming with power (Acts 1:1-11). II. God Overcomes Human Barriers to Continue Jesus' Mission (Acts 8:1-13:52).
A. God overcomes cultural barriers
(Acts 8:1-40). III. God Expands Jesus' Mission through Geographical Boundaries (Acts 14:1-20:12).
A. Persecution helps spread
missionary work (Acts 14:1-7). IV. Human Limits Cannot Hinder Jesus' Mission (Acts 20:13-28:31).
A. Missionaries testify of Christ,
even in the face of danger (Acts 20:13-24). The Acts of the Apostles is a genre of Early Christian literature, recounting the lives and works of the apostles of Jesus. The Acts are important for many reasons, one of them being the concept of apostolic succession. They also provide insight into the valuation of "missionary activities among the exotic races," since some of them feature missionary work done among, for instance, the Cynocephaly. One work in this genre is included in the New Testament canon, entitled simply Acts of the Apostles or Acts, and primarily concerns the activities of Saint Peter, John the Apostle, and Paul the Apostle, a convert. It is presumably the second part of a two-part work, the Canonical Gospel of Luke being the first part, with both works being addressed to Theophilus, and sharing a similar style. List of Acts:
Acts of Andrew Of the books mentioned in the Bible, yet are not found in the Bible The Acts of the Kings of Israel is a non-canonical work described in 2Chronicles 33:18. The passage reads:
This book is sometimes called The Acts and Prayers of Manasseh
May be identical to The
Book of the Kings of Israel Acts of the Martyrs are accounts of the suffering and death of a Christian martyr or group of martyrs. These accounts were collected and used in church liturgies from early times, as attested by Saint Augustine. These accounts vary in authenticity. The most reliable follow accounts from trials. Very few of these have survived. Perhaps the most reliable of these is the account of Saint Cyprian. The account of Scillitan Martyrs is also based on trial records, though it has been embellished with miraculous and apocryphal material. A second category, the "Passiones," are based on eyewitness accounts. These include the martyrdoms of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Saint Polycarp, the Martyrs of Lyons, the famous Acts of Perpetua and Felicitias, and the Passion of Saint Irenaeus. In these accounts, miraculous elements are restricted, a feature that proved unpopular. These accounts were often later embellished with legendary material. A third category is accounts that are purely legendary, probably without even a kernel of historical information. The Acts of Saint Catherine of Alexandria and those of Saint George fall into this category. Eusebius of Caesarea was likely the first Christian author to produce a collection of acts of the martyrs.
Besides these, there are romances,
either written around a few real facts which have been preserved in
popular or literary tradition, or else pure works of the imagination,
containing no real facts whatever. Still, as they were written with
the intention of edifying and not deceiving the reader, a special
class must be reserved for hagiographical forgeries. To this must be
relegated all those Acts, Passions, Lives, Legends, and Translations
which have been written with the express purpose of perverting
history, such, for instance, as the legends and translations falsely
attaching a saint's name to some special church or city. Fragments of four other cycles of romances around the figure of the apostle Thomas survive, but this is the only complete one. It should not be confused with the early "sayings" Gospel of Thomas. "Like other apocryphal acts combining popular legend and religious propaganda, the work attempts to entertain and instruct. In addition to narratives of Thomas' adventures, its poetic and liturgical elements provide important evidence for early Syrian Christian traditions," according to the Anchor Bible Dictionary. Acts of Thomas is a series of episodic Acts (Latin passio) that occurred during the evangelistic mission of Judas Thomas ("Judas the Twin") to India. It ends with his martyrdom: he dies pierced with spears, having earned the ire of the monarch Misdaeus (Vasudeva I) because of his conversion of Misdaeus' wives and a relative, Charisius. He was imprisoned while converting Indian followers won through the performing of miracles. Embedded in the Acts of Thomas at different places according to differing manuscript traditions is a Syriac hymn, The Hymn of the Pearl, (or Hymn of the Soul), a poem that gained a great deal of popularity in mainstream Christian circles. The Hymn is older than the Acts into which it has been inserted, and is worth appreciating on its own. The text is interrupted with the poetry of another hymn, the one that begins "Come, thou holy name of the Christ that is above every name" (2.27), a theme that was taken up in Catholic Christianity in the 13th century as the Holy Name. Though Gregory of Tours made a version, mainstream Christian tradition rejects the Acts of Thomas as pseudepigraphical and apocryphal, and for its part, the Roman Catholic Church finally confirmed the Acts as heretical at the Council of Trent. See also Leucius Charinus. Thomas is often referred to by his name Judas (his full name is Thomas Judas Didymus), since both Thomas and Didymus just mean twin, and several scholars believe that twin is just a description, and not intended as a name. The manuscripts end "The acts of Judas Thomas the apostle are completed, which he did in India, fulfilling the commandment of him that sent him. Unto whom be glory, world without end. Amen.". Acts of Thomas - Content The text is broken by headings:
The story clearly has the gnostic themes of death and resurrection, death not being a bad thing but a result of the pursuit of gnostic teaching, and the resurrection into greater life (and they lived happily ever after) once gnostic teaching is understood.
Acts of Thomas - View of Jesus The view of Jesus in the book could be inferred to be docetic. Thomas is not just Jesus' twin, he is Jesus' identical twin. As such, it is possible that Thomas is meant to represent the earthly, human side of Jesus, while Jesus is entirely spiritual in his being. In this way, Jesus directs Thomas' quest from heaven, while Thomas does the work on earth. For example, when the apostles are casting lots to choose where they will mission, Thomas initially refuses to go to India. However, Jesus appears in human form to sell Thomas as a slave to a merchant going to India, after which Jesus disappears. Also in line with docetic thinking is Jesus' stance on sex. In one scene a couple is married, and Jesus miraculously appears to the bride in the bridal chamber. He speaks against having intercourse, even if it is for the purpose of procreation. This indicates that the spiritual world is more important than the earthly one, and as such, Christians should not be concerned with procreation.
The Acts of Timothy are a work of New Testament apocrypha, most likely from the 5th century, which are primarily concerned with portraying the apostle Timothy as the first bishop of Ephesus and describing his death during a violent pagan festival in the same town. For many years these Acts were known only through a Latin translation (BHL 8294) included in the second volume of the Acta Sanctorum in 1643. Photius, the learned patriarch of Constantinople, had read the Greek original and had given an account in his Bibliotheca (Codex 254). Then in 1877 Hermann Usener edited the Greek original (BHG 1847), which had been located in Paris Codex Gr. 1219 (from the 11th or 12th century). The Latin version attributes the Acts to Polycrates of Ephesus (c. 130-196); however, the Greek original has no such attestation, thus indicating that such an ascription of authorship was a later addition. Usener dated the Acts before 356, probably between 320 and 340, and thought they were based on a veritable history of the Ephesian church. Shortly after its publication Theodor Zahn raised several issues concerning Usener's dating. One problem was the statement in the Acts that Lystra was in the province (eparchy) of Lycaonia. Zahn pointed out that Lycaonia was not a separate province until after c. 370. Accordingly, most scholars put the time of composition no earlier than the fifth century. Another more recently observed problem is the two named proconsuls of Asia, Maximus and Peregrinus. Barnes has demonstrated that both these individuals are fictitious. Thus, the trustworthiness of the Acts as a source for historical information is somewhat impaired. Nevertheless, the author does display local knowledge of the topography and culture of Ephesus. The Acts tell how Paul had consecrated Timothy as bishop during Nero's reign on the occasion of a visit to Ephesus which they made together. Then, under Nerva, Timothy suffers a martyr's death during a pagan festival. In this "devilish and abominable festival," as Photius calls it men with masks on their faces and with clubs in their hands went about "assaulting without restraint free men and respectable women, perpetrating murders of no common sort and shedding endless blood in the best parts of the city, as if they were performing a religious duty." Scholars have identified this festival, called katagogia (roughly, "the bringing down"), with the cult of Dionysus. As Klauck describes it, Timothy "attempts to put an end to the wild and violent goings-on but himself falls victim to the orgies." In addition to the activities of Timothy, there is almost as much material about John the Evangelist, who was also a resident of Ephesus. Usener explains this odd situation as being due perhaps to the material having come originally from an earlier history of the Ephesian church. The Acts also contain an interesting passage on the formation of the fourfold gospel. Some followers of the disciples of the Lord, not knowing how to put in order certain papyri which were written in different languages and put together in random fashion by these disciples and which dealt with the miracles of the Lord Jesus which had taken place in their time, came to the city of Ephesus and by common consent brought them (the papyri) to John the renowned theologian. He examined them thoroughly and taking his cue from them, after he had put in order the three gospel narratives and entitled them Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Luke, assigning their proper titles to the gospels, he himself theologized upon the things they had not narrated ..., filling up also the gaps they had left, in their accounts of the miracles especially, and then he set his own name to this compilation or gospel. — Acts of Timothy
Whereas Lipsius had seen this
account as a dressing-up of what was in Eusebius (hist. eccl. III 24,
7), Crehan views it as evidence for an earlier date for the Acts. He
argues that Lipsius "does not attach due importance to the
circumstantial account in the Acta of the papyri and of their titling
by John, an account which it would have been difficult for a forger
in the days of the big vellum codices (after 320) to make up for himself." Of the books mentioned in the Bible, yet are not found in the Bible The Acts of Uziah is a lost text that may have been written by Isaiah, who was one of King Uzziah's contemporaries. The book is described in 2 Chronicles 26:22 and 32:32 The passage reads:
This manuscript is sometimes called Second Isaiah or The Book by the prophet Isaiah - Perhaps the same as the Book of Isaiah. An acronym for anno domini, the year of the Lord. [Latin anno Domini], "year of our Lord"; indicates that a time division falls within the Christian era; same as CE. "CE," an acronym for the religiously neutral term "Christian era" or "common era" is gradually replacing "AD."
(indicating years numbered from
the supposed year of the birth of Christ) in the year of the Lord It refers to the number of years since the birth of Yeshua of Nazareth, Jesus Christ. In reality, Jesus was born probably in the Fall of a year between 4 and 7 BC. See The Real Nativity Story: Surprising Truths You May Not Know! see also Muqatta'at Place name of city near Jordan River, where waters of Jordan heaped up so Israel could cross over to conquer the land (Joshua 3:16). Its location is probably Tel ed-Damieh near the Jabbok River. See also Adam Here in Names in The Bible
Adamah See Admah Twelfth month of the Jewish religious Calendar, occurring in February/March; sixth month of the Hebrew civil year counting from Tishri. A second month of Adar is included in a leap year (see below). Normally, however, Adar is a month of 29 days coinciding with February-March. Its sign of the zodiac, Pisces the Fishes, was considered by the rabbis unusually propitious. Under its Babylonian name of Adar, this month is mentioned several times in the Bible (Est. 3:7, 13, 8:12, 9:1, etc.; Ezra 6:15) and the Apocrypha (esp. II Macc. 15:36), chiefly because of its many historical associations. On the third day of the month, with Persian royal assent, the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem was solemnly dedicated (Ezra 6:14-16). Traditionally, 7 Adar marks the birth and death of Moses (Meg. 13b); a minor fast on this date is still observed by Jewish Burial Society officers to atone for any acts of disrespect which they may unwittingly have committed toward the dead. The major holiday in the month is the festival of Purim on 14 Adar; in Jerusalem and in ancient walled cities it is observed on the following day, known as Shushan Purim. In a leap year, there is a first Adar (Heb. Adar Rishon) consisting of 30 days and a second Adar (Heb. Adar Sheni or Ve-Adar) of 29. All the events commemorated in a regular month are then transferred to the second Adar, including Purim. However, in this case a small foretaste of Purim known as Purim Katan ("Minor Purim") is observed on the same dates in Adar I. Leap year complications are overcome by the generally accepted halakhic rule that a Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah is celebrated in the second Adar while Yahrzeit and Kaddish observances are held in the first.
Mainly because of Purim, this is a
uniquely joyous month in the religious calendar, inspiring the
rabbinic dictum that "when Adar comes in,
rejoicing is increased" (Ta'an. 29a). Judah Maccabee's defeat of
the Syrian general Nicanor was originally celebrated as a minor
festival on 13 Adar (I Macc. 7:49), this "Day of
Nicanor" being specifically mentioned in the Apocrypha
as occurring immediately before Purim, "the day of Mordecai"
(II Macc. 15:36). In time, however, it gave way to the Fast of
Esther (see Fasting and Fast Days), now observed on the same date.
An extra month of the Hebrew year,
having 29 days, added in leap years after the regular month of Adar.
Also called Veadar. Adbeel See Adbeel Here in Names in The Bible
Addaru See Adar The Additions to Daniel comprise three chapters not found in the Hebrew/Aramaic text of Daniel. The text of these chapters is found in the Koine Greek Septuagint, the earliest Old Greek translation. They are accepted as canonical and translated as such in Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Assyrian Bibles. They are listed in Article VI of the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England. However, most Protestant Bibles exclude these passages as Biblical apocrypha, retaining only the text available today in the Hebrew/Aramaic manuscripts. The additions are:
Adiaphoron is a concept of Stoic philosophy that indicates things outside of moral law—that is, actions that morality neither mandates nor forbids. In Christianity, adiaphora are matters not regarded as essential to faith, but nevertheless as permissible for Christians or allowed in church. What is specifically considered adiaphora depends on the specific theology in view. Stoicism and Adiaphoron The Stoics distinguished all the objects of human pursuit into three classes. Virtue, wisdom, justice, temperance, and the like, were denominated good; their opposites were bad. But besides these there were many other objects of pursuit such as wealth, fame, etc. of themselves neither good nor bad. These were thought therefore in ethics to occupy neutral territory, and were denominated adiaphora. This distinction amounted practically to an exclusion of the adiaphora from the field of morals. Christianity and Adiaphoron New Testament examples of adiaphora are often cited from Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians. Some of this epistle was written in response to a question from the Corinthian Christians regarding whether it was permissible for a Christian to eat food offered to idols. In response, Paul replied: ...food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do. Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. (1 Corinthians 8:8–9 New International Version) However, upon study of several other Pauline passages ones sees that Paul is not necessarily saying that there are such things as adiaphora. Elsewhere he says: And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17 NIV) The adiaphora are morally acceptable or unacceptable by God based upon the motive and end of the doer. In this sense there are no indifferent things. See also Christian views on the old covenant and Paul the Apostle and Judaism Lutheranism and Adiaphoron The issue of what constituted adiaphora became a major dispute during the Protestant Reformation. In 1548, two years after the death of Martin Luther, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V tried to unite Catholics and Protestants in his realm with a law called the Augsburg Interim. This law was rejected by Philipp Melanchthon, on the account that it did not ensure justification by faith as a fundamental doctrine. Later he was persuaded to accept a compromise known as the Leipzig Interim, deciding that doctrinal differences not related to justification by faith were adiaphora or matters of indifference. Melanchthon's compromise was vehemently opposed by Matthias Flacius and his followers in Magdeburg, who went to the opposite extreme by claiming that adiaphora cease to be adiaphora in a case of scandal and confession. By 1576 both extremes were rejected by the majority of Lutherans led by Martin Chemnitz and the formulators of the Formula of Concord. In 1577, the Formula of Concord was crafted to settle the question of the nature of genuine adiaphora, which it defined as church rites that are "...neither commanded nor forbidden in the Word of God." However, the Concord added believers should not yield even in matters of adiaphora when these are being forced upon them by the "enemies of God's Word". The Lutheran Augsburg Confession states that the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. Nor is it necessary that human traditions, that is, rites or ceremonies, instituted by men, should be everywhere alike. See also Law and Gospel Puritanism and Adiaphoron The Westminster Confession of Faith, a confession of faith written by the Puritans, which after the English Civil War was rejected by the Anglicans, distinguishes between elements or acts of worship (worship proper) and the circumstances of worship. The elements of worship must be limited to what has positive warrant in Scripture, a doctrine known as the regulative principle of worship. In this framework, the elements of worship have included praise (the words and manner of music), prayer, preaching and teaching from the Bible, the taking of vows, and the two sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, while the circumstances of worship have included the building and its necessary furniture and the time of day for worship. The circumstances of worship are considered adiaphora, although they must be done for edification and to promote peace and order (compare 1 Cor. 14:26–33; Rom. 14:19). According to the Westminster Confession 20.2, the conscience is left free in general belief and behavior within the realm of whatever is not "contrary to the Word." However, specifically concerning worship and religious faith, the conscience is free from whatever is "besides" Scripture; that is, it is free to worship and believe only according to whatever has positive warrant in Scripture. Presbyterians who have subscribed to the Westminster Confession, for instance, sometimes considered the questions of musical instruments and of the singing of hymns (as opposed to exclusive psalmody) not drawn directly from the Bible as related to the elements of worship, not optional circumstances, and for this reason they rejected musical instruments and hymns because they believed they were neither commanded by scripture nor deduced by good and necessary consequence from it. Adherence to such a position is rare among modern Presbyterians, however. The Puritan position on worship is thus in line with the common saying regarding adiaphora: "In necessary things, unity; in doubtful things, liberty; in all things, charity". Latitudinarianism in Anglicanism and Adiaphoron
Latitudinarianism was initially a
pejorative term applied to a group of 17th-century English
theologians who believed in conforming to official Church of England
practices but who felt that matters of doctrine, liturgical practice,
and ecclesiastical organization were of relatively little importance.
Good examples of the latitudinarian philosophy were found among the
Cambridge Platonists. The latitudinarian Anglicans of the seventeenth
century built on Richard Hooker's position, in Of the Laws of
Ecclesiastical Polity, that God cares about the moral state of the
individual soul and that such things as church leadership are
"things indifferent". However, they took the position far
beyond Hooker's own and extended it to doctrinal matters. (or Adamah - earth) Place name meaning, “red soil.” A city in the Valley of Siddim, connected with Sodom and Gomorrah, southeast of the Dead Sea as border of Canaanite territory (Genesis 10:19). Shinab, the king of Admah, together with the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Zeboiim and Bela, were defeated by four kings from the east (Gen 14:8-11). God destroyed Admah, one of “the cities of the plains” (Genesis 19:29), along with Sodom and Gomorrah (Deuteronomy 29:23). God could not stand to treat Israel, the people He loved, like He had treated Admah, even though Israel's behavior resembled Admah's (Hosea 11:8). Admah may have been located under what is now the southern part of the Dead Sea.
It is supposed by some to be the
same as the "Adam" of Joshua 3:16, the name of which still
lingers in Damieh, a ford of the Jordan river. In Canaanite (Ugaritic) tradition, literally "lord of gods"is an epithet of El, but adn could also be an epithet of other gods, especially Tammuz. The epithet of Tammuz enters Greek tradition as a proper name, Adonis, the youthful lover of Aphrodite. Hebrew tradition makes Adon "lord"or Adonai "my lord"an epithet of the God of Israel, depicted as the chief antagonist of "the Ba`als"in the Tanakh. The epithet came to be used as an euphemism to avoid invoking the deity's proper name, Yahweh. Adonis is a "Semitic divine title equipped with a Greek ending"derived from adon; by the time of Sappho, a cult worshiping Adonis had emerged in Ancient Greece. In Ugaritic texts, dn in its meaning as "lord" appears a number of times. Used to refer to the lord and father over deceased kings, the term adn ilm rbm (meaning "the Lord of the Great Gods"), is thought by some scholars to be a divine epiteph of Ba`al, while others think it refers to El, Mardikh, Yaqar or Yarikh. Adn ilm (meaning "the Lord of Gods") also appears in the texts to refer to El, and when Yam is described in at being at the height of his power, he is proclaimed adn or "lord (of the gods). Ugarit family households were modeled after the structure of the divine world, each headed by an ?adn (meaning in this context "master"or "patron"). Generally, this was the patriarch of the family and there may be some relation between ?adn and the Ugarit word for "father", ad.
An Adonaist (Heb. Lord, a scriptural title of the Supreme Being) among critics, a sect or party who maintain that the Hebrew language vowel points ordinarily annexed to the consonants of the word "Jehovah", are not the natural points belonging to that word, and that they do not express the true pronunciation of it; but that they are vowel points belonging to the words, Adonai and Elohim, applied to the ineffable name Jehovah, which the Jews were forbidden to utter, and the true pronunciation of which was lost; they were therefore always to pronounce the word Adonai, instead of Jehovah.
Adonai
- Adonaist Jews also call God Adonai, Hebrew for "Lord"(Hebrew: ???????). Formally, this is plural ("my Lords"), but the plural is usually construed as a respectful, and not a syntactic plural. (The singular form is Adoni, "my lord". This was used by the Phoenicians for the god Tammuz and is the origin of the Greek name Adonis. Jews only use the singular to refer to a distinguished person: in the plural, "rabotai", literally, "my masters", is used in both Mishnaic and modern Hebrew.) Since pronouncing YHWH is avoided out of reverence for the holiness of the name, Jews use Adonai instead in prayers, and colloquially would use Hashem ("the Name"). When the Masoretes added vowel pointings to the text of the Hebrew Bible around the eighth century CE, they gave the word YHWH the vowels of Adonai, to remind the reader to say Adonai instead. It is thought by some that later Biblical scholars mistook this vowel substitution for the actual spelling of YHWH and interpreted the name of God as "Jehovah".
The Sephardi translators of the
Ferrara Bible go further and substitute Adonai with A. In the Bible, the only legitimate sexual intercourse is between a man and a woman who are married to each other.
Jesus
clarifies the definition even more. HE says that
"adultery"is committed when a person simply looks longingly
upon another person even though they never do anything beyond the
mental exercise of longing!! Spiritually adultery is when a person
turns away from the true God to
worship an idol or to elevate something else as god.
Adjure to command on
oath before God.
The origin of Advent is unknown, but it was observed as early as the 6th century. Originally Advent was seen as a time of preparation for the feast of Christ's nativity. But during the Middle Ages this meaning was extended to include preparation for Christ's second coming, as well as Christ's present coming through grace. It is a period of time before Christmas, beginning on the Sunday nearest to November 30 and continues until Christmas. Beginning in Western churches on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and in Eastern churches in mid-November, and observed by many Christians as a season of prayer, fasting, and penitence. In many countries it is celebrated with popular customs such as the lighting of Advent candles. Its length varies from 22 to 28 days, beginning on the Sunday nearest St. Andrew's Day and encompassing the next three Sundays, ending on Christmas Eve. In the Roman Catholic Church and those of the Anglican Communion the third Sunday is called Gaudete Sunday, from the first word of the introit, "Rejoice." Rose-colored vestments may replace the purple, and flowers may be on the altar. Originally a period of reflection and penitence in preparation for Christmas—in much the same way that Lent is in preparation for Easter—Advent has sometimes been referred to as the Winter Lent . But over time the restrictions of Advent have become greatly relaxed. Today it is usually associated with the Advent calendars that parents give their children to help them count the days until Christmas.
In Orthodox (Eastern)
Christianity, the church year begins on September 1, and Advent
begins on November 15. The Advent fast is called the
Little Lent, because it's shorter than the Great Lent preceding Easter. a location near the Jordan river, not terribly far from Jericho. Different experts have suggested different locations. This place is mentioned in John's Gospel as a locale where John the Baptist ministered. Ænon is a Greek word coming from a Hebrew term "ay-yin". It means "spring" or "natural fountain" and was a place near Salem where John the Baptist baptized (John 3:23). Its probable location was near the upper source of the Wadi Far'ah, an open valley extending from Mount Ebal to the Jordan River which is full of springs. There is a now place called Ainun four miles north of the springs. It is found only once in the Bible and in reference to baptism. The name is commonly used amongst Baptist organizations and churches.
The Gospel of John (3:23) refers
to Enon near Salim as the place where John the Baptist performed
baptisms in the River Jordan, "because there was much water there". Aeon may refer to Greek "time, eternity; age", see Aeon
The word aeon, also spelled eon, originally means "life" or "being", though it then tended to mean "age" in the sense of "time", "ages", "forever" or "for eternity". It is a Latin transliteration from the koine Greek word (ho aion), from the archaic (aiwon). In Homer it typically refers to life or lifespan. Its latest meaning is more or less similar to the Sanskrit word kalpa and Hebrew word olam. A cognate Latin word aevum or aeuum for "age" is present in words such as longevity and mediaeval. Although the term aeon may be used in reference to a period of a billion years (especially in geology, cosmology or astronomy), its more common usage is for any long, indefinite, period. Aeon can also refer to the four aeons on the Geologic Time Scale that make up the Earth's history, the Hadean, Archean, Proterozoic, and the current aeon Phanerozoic. Aeon in Astronomy and Cosmology In astronomy an aeon is defined as a billion years (109 years, abbreviated AE). Roger Penrose uses the word aeon to describe the period between successive and cyclic big bangs within the context of conformal cyclic cosmology. Aeon in Eternity or Age The Bible translation is a treatment of the Hebrew word olam and the Greek word aion. Both these words have similar meaning, and Young's Literal Translation renders them and their derivatives as “age” or “age-during”. Other English versions most often translate them to indicate eternity, being translated as eternal, everlasting, forever, etc. However, there are notable exceptions to this in all major translations, such as Matthew 28:20: “&ldots;I am with you always, to the end of the age” (NRSV), the word “age” being a translation of aion. Rendering aion to indicate eternality in this verse would result in the contradictory phrase “end of eternity”, so the question arises whether it should ever be so. Proponents of Universal Reconciliation point out that this has significant implications for the problem of hell. Contrast Matthew 25:46 in well-known English translations with its rendering in Young's Literal Translation: And these shall go away to punishment age-during, but the righteous to life age-during. (YLT) Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. (NIV) These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (NASB) And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (KJV) And these will depart into everlasting cutting-off, but the righteous ones into everlasting life. (NWT) Aeon in Philosophy and Mysticism Plato used the word aeon to denote the eternal world of ideas, which he conceived was "behind" the perceived world, as demonstrated in his famous allegory of the cave. Christianity's idea of "eternal life" comes from the word for life, zoe, and a form of aeon, which could mean life in the next aeon, the Kingdom of God, or Heaven, just as much as immortality, as in John 3:16. According to the Christian doctrine of Universal Reconciliation, the Greek New Testament scriptures use the word "eon" to mean a long period (perhaps 1000 years) and the word "eonian" to mean "during a long period"; Thus there was a time before the eons, and the eonian period is finite. After each man's mortal life ends, he is judged worthy of eonian life or eonian punishment. That is, after the period of the eons, all punishment will cease and death is overcome and then God becomes the all in each one (1Cor 15:28). This contrasts with the conventional Christian belief in eternal life and eternal punishment. Occultists of the Thelema and O.T.O. traditions sometimes speak of a "magical Aeon" that may last for far less time, perhaps as little as 2,000 years. Aeon may also be an archaic name for omnipotent beings, such as gods. Aeon in Gnosticism In many Gnostic systems, the various emanations of God, who is also known by such names as the One, the Monad, Aion teleos ("The Broadest Aeon"), Bythos ("depth or profundity"), Proarkhe ("before the beginning"), the Arkhe ("the beginning"), "Sophia" (wisdom), Christos (the Anointed One) are called Aeons. In the different systems these emanations are differently named, classified, and described, but the emanation theory itself is common to all forms of Gnosticism. In the Basilidian Gnosis they are called sonships (huiotetes; sing. huiotes); according to Marcus, they are numbers and sounds; in Valentinianism they form male/female pairs called "syzygies" (Greek, from syzygoi).
Similarly, in the Greek Magical
Papyri, the term "Aion" is often used to denote the All, or
the supreme aspect of God. From Greek meaning "dessert."
A half piece of matzah set aside
during the Passover Seder, which is later hidden by children and then
ransomed by parents, or hidden by parents and found by children. It
is eaten as the last part of the meal. Also African Indigenous Churches
African-based Christian faith
groups which range from variations of Western denominations to
syncretistic tribal groups which combine selective elements of
Christianity with local existing traditions.
The afterlife is the
proposed continued existence of the soul, spirit
or mind of a being after physical death. The major views on the afterlife
derive from religion, esotericism and metaphysics. In many popular
views, this continued existence often takes place in a spiritual or
immaterial realm. Deceased persons are usually believed to go to a
specific realm or plane of existence after death, usually determined
by their actions during life. By contrast, the term reincarnation
refers to an afterlife that is a continuation of
physical life in this world. Against Apion was a polemical work written by Flavius Josephus as a defense of Judaism as a classical religion and philosophy, stressing its antiquity against what he perceived as more recent traditions of the Greeks. Against Apion cites Josephus' earlier work Antiquities of the Jews, so can be dated after C.E. 94. It was most likely written in the early second century. 1:8 also defines which books Josephus viewed as being in the Jewish Scriptures: “ For we have not an innumerable multitude of books among us, disagreeing from and contradicting one another, [as the Greeks have,] but only twenty-two books, (8) which contain the records of all the past times; which are justly believed to be divine; and of them five belong to Moses, which contain his laws and the traditions of the origin of mankind till his death. This interval of time was little short of three thousand years; but as to the time from the death of Moses till the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, who reigned after Xerxes, the prophets, who were after Moses, wrote down what was done in their times in thirteen books. The remaining four books contain hymns to God, and precepts for the conduct of human life. It is true, our history hath been written since Artaxerxes very particularly, but hath not been esteemed of the like authority with the former by our forefathers, because there hath not been an exact succession of prophets since that time; and how firmly we have given credit to these books of our own nation is evident by what we do; for during so many ages as have already passed, no one has been so bold as either to add any thing to them, to take any thing from them, or to make any change in them; but it is become natural to all Jews immediately, and from their very birth, to esteem these books to contain Divine doctrines, and to persist in them, and, if occasion be willingly to die for them.” In the second book, Josephus defends the historicity of the Jewish Bible against accusations made by Apion (who Josephus states is not Greek), arguing that Apion in fact rehashes material of Manetho's, though there was apparently some confusion between Manetho's references to the Hyksos and the Hebrews. Josephus on Apion's blood libel (Against Apion 2:8): “Apion becomes other men's prophet upon this occasion, and says that "Antiochus found in our temple a bed, and a man lying upon it, with a small table before him, full of dainties, from the [fishes of the] sea, and the fowls of the dry land... he fell down upon his knees, and begged to be released; and that when the king bid him sit down, and tell him who he was, and why he dwelt there, and what was the meaning of those various sorts of food that were set before him the man made a lamentable complaint, and with sighs, and tears in his eyes, gave him this account of the distress he was in; and said that he was a Greek and that as he went over this province, in order to get his living, he was seized upon by foreigners, on a sudden, and brought to this temple, and shut up therein, and was seen by nobody, but was fattened by these curious provisions thus set before him; and that truly at the first such unexpected advantages seemed to him matter of great joy; that after a while, he inquired of the servants that came to him and was by them informed that it was in order to the fulfilling a law of the Jews, which they must not tell him, that he was thus fed; and that they did the same at a set time every year: that they used to catch a Greek foreigner, and fat him thus up every year, and then lead him to a certain wood, and kill him, and sacrifice with their accustomed solemnities, and taste of his entrails, and take an oath upon this sacrificing a Greek, that they would ever be at enmity with the Greeks; and that then they threw the remaining parts of the miserable wretch into a certain pit." Now this is such a most tragical fable as is full of nothing but cruelty and impudence; how comes it about that we take an oath, and conspire only against the Grecians, and that by the effusion of their blood also? Or how is it possible that all the Jews should get together to these sacrifices, and the entrails of one man should be sufficient for so many thousands to taste of them, as Apion pretends? Or why did not the king carry this man, whosoever he was, and whatsoever was his name, [which is not set down in Apion's book,] with great pomp back into his own country? when he might thereby have been esteemed a religious person himself, and a mighty lover of the Greeks, and might thereby have procured himself great assistance from all men against that hatred the Jews bore to him. But I leave this matter; for the proper way of confuting fools is not to use bare words, but to appeal to the things themselves that make against them . . ." The Works of Flavius Josephus
Irenaeus wrote a number of books, but the most important that survives is the Against Heresies (or, in its Latin title, Adversus Haereses). In Book I, Irenaeus talks about the Valentinian Gnostics and their predecessors, who go as far back as the magician Simon Magus. In Book II he attempts to provide proof that Valentinianism contains no merit in terms of its doctrines. In Book III Irenaeus purports to show that these doctrines are false, by providing counter-evidence gleaned from the Gospels. Book IV consists of Jesus' sayings, and here Irenaeus also stresses the unity of the Old Testament and the Gospel. In the final volume, Book V, Irenaeus focuses on more sayings of Jesus plus the letters of Paul the Apostle. The purpose of "Against Heresies" was to refute the teachings of various Gnostic groups; apparently, several Greek merchants had begun an oratorial campaign in Irenaeus' bishopric, teaching that the material world was the accidental creation of an evil god, from which we are to escape by the pursuit of gnosis. Irenaeus argued that the true gnosis is in fact knowledge of Christ, which redeems rather than escapes from bodily existence. Until the discovery of the Library of Nag Hammadi in 1945, Against Heresies was the best-surviving description of Gnosticism. According to some biblical scholars, the findings at Nag Hammadi have shown Irenaeus' description of Gnosticism to be largely inaccurate and polemic in nature. Though correct in some details about the belief systems of various groups, Irenaeus' main purpose was to warn Christians against Gnosticism, rather than catalog those beliefs. He described Gnostic groups as sexual libertines, for example, when some of their own writings advocated chastity more strongly than did orthodox texts—yet the gnostic texts cannot be taken as guides to their actual practices, about which almost nothing is reliably known today. However, at least one scholar, Rodney Stark, claims that it is the same Nag Hammadi library that proves Ireneaus right. It seemed that Irenaeus's critiques against the gnostics were exaggerated, which led to his scholarly dismissal for a long time. For example, he wrote: "They declare that Judas the traitor was thoroughly acquainted with these things, and that he alone, knowing the truth as no other did, accomplished the mystery of betrayal; by him all things were thus thrown into confusion. They produce a fictitious history of this kind, which they style the Gospel of Judas." These claims turned out to be truly mentioned in the Gospel of Judas where Jesus asked Judas to betray him. In any case the gnostics were not a single group, but a wide array of sects. Some groups were indeed libertine because they considered bodily existence meaningless; others praise chastity, and strongly prohibited any sexual activity, even within marriage. Irenaeus also wrote The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching (also known as Proof of the Apostolic Preaching), an Armenian copy of which was discovered in 1904. This work seems to have been an instruction for recent Christian converts. Eusebius attests to other works by Irenaeus, today lost, including On the Ogdoad, an untitled letter to Blastus regarding schism, On the Subject of Knowledge, On the Monarchy or How God is not the Cause of Evil. Irenaeus exercised wide influence on the generation which followed. Both Hippolytus and Tertullian freely drew on his writings. However, none of his works aside from Against Heresies and The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching survive today, perhaps because his literal hope of an earthly millennium may have made him uncongenial reading in the Greek East. Even though no complete version of Against Heresies in its original Greek exists, we possess the full ancient Latin version, probably of the third century, as well as thirty-three fragments of a Syrian version and a complete Armenian version of books 4 and 5. Irenaeus' works were first translated into English by John Keble and published in 1872 as part of the Library of the Fathers series. Read:
The term Agape or Love feast was used of certain
religious meals among early Christians that seem to have been
originally closely related to the Eucharist. In modern times it is
used to refer to a Christian ritual meal distinct from the Eucharist. The Central Cushitic languages are classified as follows (after Appleyard):
There is a rich literature in Agaw but it is widely dispersed: from fascinating mediaeval texts in the Qimant language, now mostly in Israeli museums, to the modern, flourishing and topical in the Blin language, with its own newspaper, based in Keren, Eritrea. Much historical material is also available in the Xamtanga language, and there is a deep tradition of folklore in the Awngi language.
Agaw / Blin syllables are among the Ethiopic glyphs
computerized by Dr. Aberra Molla in the 1980s. (Aramaic tales, lore; pl. aggadot or (Ashkenazi) aggados; also known as aggad or aggadh) Aggadah refers to the homiletic and non-legalistic exegetical texts in the classical rabbinic literature of Judaism, particularly as recorded in the Talmud and Midrash. In general, Aggadah is a compendium of rabbinic homilies that incorporates folklore, historical anecdotes, moral exhortations, and practical advice in various spheres, from business to medicine.
In terms of etymology, the cognate Hebrew: means
"telling", while the Aramaic root (as well as from which
may arise) has the dual implication of “expanding” /
“drawing out” and “binding” / “drawing
in”. Correspondingly, the Aggadah may be seen as those teachings
which communicate Rabbinic traditions to the reader, simultaneously
expanding their understanding of the text, while strengthening their
religious experience and spiritual connection. The root also has the
meaning "flow", and here relates to the transmission of ideas.
Ahhiyawan
See Achaeans (Homer) (also known as Ohrmazd, Ahuramazda, Hourmazd, Hormazd, and Hurmuz, Lord or simply as spirit) Ahura Mazda is the Avestan name for a higher divine spirit of the old Iranian religion (predating Islam) who was proclaimed as the uncreated spirit by Zoroaster, the founder of Zoroastrianism. Ahura Mazda is described as the highest spirit of worship in Zoroastrianism, along with being the first and most frequently invoked spirit in the Yasna. The literal meaning of the word Ahura is light and Mazda is wisdom. Zoroastrianism revolves around three basic tenets - Good Thoughts, Good Words and Good Deeds. Ahura Mazda first appeared in the Achaemenid period (c. 550 – 330 BCE) under Darius I's Behistun Inscription. Until Artaxerxes II (405–04 to 359–58 BCE), Ahura Mazda was worshiped and invoked alone. With Artaxerxes II, Ahura Mazda was invoked in a triad, with Mithra and Apam Napat. In the Achaemenid period, there are no representations of Ahura Mazda other than the custom for every emperor to have an empty chariot drawn by white horses, to invite Ahura Mazda to accompany the Persian army on battles. Images of Ahura Mazda began in the Parthian period, but were stopped and replaced with stone carved figures in the Sassanid period.
This is where Jacob had his dream of the ladder into Heaven. Ai was a city that first defeated the invading Israelites because Achan had secretly kept forbidden loot from the defeat of Jericho. And this brought a curse upon Israel's armies and the death of many soldiers. Joshua appealed to God and was told that this setback was a punishment for Achan's sin (Josh 7:1-12). As soon as Achan was brought to justice, Joshua attacked Ai a second time; the city was captured, burnt, and reduced to "a heap forever, a desolation to this day'' (Josh 8:1-29). Later Aiath and and Aija were built very close to the spot Ai had been built on. And so Aiath and Aija are approximately on the same spot. Among the exiles returning from Babylon with Zerubbabel were men of Ai and Bethel (Ezra 2:1-2, 28; Neh 7:32). Excavations at Ai in 1933 – 35 uncovered a temple of the 3rd millennium BC. The biblical events at Ai are assigned to the period c. 1400 – 1200 BC, when evidence indicates it was not in fact occupied; early tradition may have identified the Canaanite town under Bethel with the nearby ruins of Al-Tall.
Ai is identified by most scholars
with et-Tell, 1 mile (1.6 km) southwest of the site of Bethel, to the
north of Jerusalem. Excavations have uncovered remains of houses,
public buildings and fortifications from the Early Bronze Age. The
city remained in ruins until the 12th century B.C. The small
unfortified Iron Age village at the site may represent the biblical
Ai defeated by Joshua following a clash with its inhabitants in the
wadi to the north of the site. Aiath See Ai above.
AIC
acronym for African
Independent Churches or African Indigenous Churches
Akkad See Adar During the 3rd millennium BC, there developed a very intimate cultural symbiosis between the Sumerians and the Semitic Akkadians, which included widespread bilingualism. Akkadian gradually replaced Sumerian as a spoken language somewhere around the turn of the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC (the exact dating being a matter of debate). The Akkadian Empire reached its political peak between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC, following the conquests by its founder Sargon of Akkad (2334–2279 BC). Under Sargon and his successors, Akkadian language was briefly imposed on neighboring conquered states such as Elam. Akkad is sometimes regarded as the first empire in history, though there are earlier Sumerian claimants. After the fall of the Akkadian Empire, the Akkadian people of Mesopotamia eventually coalesced into two major Akkadian speaking nations: Assyria in the north, and, a few centuries later, Babylonia in the south. The Curse of The Akkadian Empire Later material described how the fall of Akkad was due to Naram-Sin's attack upon the city of Nippur. When prompted by a pair of inauspicious oracles, the king sacked the E-kur temple, supposedly protected by the god Enlil, head of the pantheon. As a result of this, eight chief deities of the Anunnaki pantheon were supposed to have come together and withdrawn their support from Akkad.
For the first time since cities
were built and founded,
For many years, the events
described in "The Curse of Akkad" were thought, like the
details of Sargon's birth, to be purely fictional. But now the
evidence of Tell Leilan, and recent findings of elevated dust
deposits in sea-cores collected off Oman, that date to the period of
Akkad's collapse suggest that this climate change may have played a role. Akkadian is an extinct Semitic language (part of the greater Afroasiatic language family) that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the cuneiform writing system, which was originally used to write ancient Sumerian, an unrelated language isolate. The name of the language is derived from the city of Akkad, a major center of Semitic Mesopotamian civilization during the Akkadian Empire (ca. 2334–2154 BC), although the language predates the founding of Akkad. The mutual influence between Sumerian and Akkadian had led scholars to describe the languages as a sprachbund. Akkadian proper names were first attested in Sumerian texts from ca. the late 29th century BC. From the second half of the third millennium BC (ca. 2500 BC), texts fully written in Akkadian begin to appear. Hundreds of thousands of texts and text fragments have been excavated to date, covering a vast textual tradition of mythological narrative, legal texts, scientific works, correspondence, political and military events, and many other examples. By the second millennium BC, two variant forms of the language were in use in Assyria and Babylonia, known as Assyrian and Babylonian respectively.
Akkadian had been for centuries
the lingua franca in Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East. However,
it began to decline around the 8th century BC, being marginalized by
Aramaic during the Neo Assyrian Empire. By the Hellenistic period,
the language was largely confined to scholars and priests working in
temples in Assyria and Babylonia. The last Akkadian cuneiform
document dates to the 1st century AD. A fair number of Akkadian loan
words survive in the Mesopotamian Neo Aramaic dialects spoken in and
around modern Iraq by the indigenous Assyrian (aka Chaldo-Assyrian)
Christians of the region, and the giving of Akkadian personal names,
along with a number of Akkadian last names and tribal names, is still
common amongst Assyrian people.
Japan-based new religious movement
founded by Asahara Shoko (b. 1955 as Matsumoto Chizuo) in 1987. It
contained elements of Hinduism and Buddhism and was founded on the
millenarian expectation of a series of disasters that would bring an
end to this world and inaugurate a new cosmic cycle. In 1995 its
members released nerve gas into the Tokyo subway system, killing 12
people and injuring some 5,500. The group has been linked with other
nerve-gas incidents and violent crimes. It claimed some 50,000
members, mostly in Russia, at the time of the gas attack. Membership
collapsed in the wake of the attack, but it had grown to more than
1,500 members by the early 21st century. The group changed its name
to Aleph in 2000. More than 10 AUM members were
sentenced to death for their involvement in the gassing incident,
including Asahara, who in 2004 was found guilty of having
masterminded the attack. In 2007 Asahara's successor, Joyu Fumihiro,
left Aleph and founded a new organization, Hikari no Wa
("Ring of Light"). An early form of the Greek text of the New Testament, now frequently equated with the Neutral text.
The Alexandrian text-type,
associated with Alexandria, is one of several text-types used in New
Testament textual criticism
to describe and group the textual character of biblical manuscripts.
The Alexandrian text-type is the form of the Greek New Testament that
predominates in the earliest surviving documents, as well as the
text-type used in Egyptian Coptic
manuscripts. In later manuscripts (from the 9th century onwards),
the Byzantine text-type became
far more common and remains as the standard text in the Greek
Orthodox church and also underlies most Protestant translations of
the Reformation era. Most modern New Testaments are based on what is
called "reasoned eclecticism" (such as that of the
Nestle-Aland 27, the basis of virtually all modern translations) in
formulating a Greek text; this invariably results in a text that is
strongly Alexandrian in character. Some modern translations break
from strict adherence to the critical Alexandrian text and adopt some
readings from the traditional Byzantine text-type and other textual
traditions; A small minority of modern translations still maintain a
close adherence to the traditional text while noting major variants,
namely, the New King James Version. The Alexandrian school is a collective designation for certain tendencies in literature, philosophy, medicine, and the sciences that developed in the Hellenistic cultural center of Alexandria, Egypt during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Alexandria was a remarkable center of learning due to the blending of Greek and Oriental influences, its favorable situation and commercial resources, and the enlightened energy of some of the Macedonian Dynasty of the Ptolemies ruling over Egypt, in the final centuries BC. Much scholarly work was collected in the great Library of Alexandria during this time. A lot of epic poetry, as well as works on geography, history, mathematics, astronomy and medicine were composed during this period.
The name of Alexandrian school is
also used to describe the religious and philosophical developments in Alexandria
after the 1st century. The mix of Jewish theology and Greek
philosophy led to a syncretic mix and much mystical speculation. The
Neoplatonists devoted themselves to examining the nature of the soul,
and sought communion with God. The two great schools of biblical
interpretation in the early Christian church incorporated
Neoplatonism and philosophical beliefs from Plato's teachings into
Christianity, and interpreted much of the Bible allegorically. The
founders of the Alexandrian school of Christian theology were Clement
of Alexandria and Origen. (Arabic: al-Masjid al-Aqsa, "the Farthest Mosque") also known as Al-Aqsa and Bayt al-Muqaddas Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam and is located in the Old City of Jerusalem. The site on which the silver domed mosque sits, along with the Dome of the Rock, also referred to as al-Haram ash-Sharif ("the Noble Sanctuary"), is the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, the place where the Temple stood before being destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. Muslims believe that Muhammad was transported from the Sacred Mosque in Mecca to al-Aqsa during the Night Journey. Islamic tradition holds that Muhammad led prayers towards this site until the seventeenth month after the emigration, when God directed him to turn towards the Kaaba.
The mosque was originally a small
prayer house built by the Rashidun caliph Umar, but was rebuilt and
expanded by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik and finished by his son
al-Walid in 705 CE. After an earthquake in 746, the mosque was
completely destroyed and rebuilt by the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur in
754, and again rebuilt by his successor al-Mahdi in 780. Another
earthquake destroyed most of al-Aqsa in 1033, but two years later the
Fatimid caliph Ali az-Zahir built another mosque which has stood to
the present-day. During the periodic renovations undertaken, the
various ruling dynasties of the Islamic Caliphate constructed
additions to the mosque and its precincts, such as its dome, facade,
its minbar, minarets and the interior structure. When the Crusaders
captured Jerusalem in 1099, they used the mosque as a palace and
church, but its function as a mosque was restored after its recapture
by Saladin in 1187. More renovations, repairs and additions were
undertaken in the later centuries by the Ayyubids, Mamluks, Ottomans,
the Supreme Muslim Council, and Jordan. Today, the Old City is under
Israeli control, but the mosque remains under the administration of
the Jordanian/Palestinian-led Islamic waqf.
Gender: Masculine This term is derived from the word 'ilm, meaning "knowledge", usually of a religious or spiritual nature. "learned, expert, scholar" in Arabic. An educated scholar of Islamic law who is well-versed in the knowledge of the Qur'an.; a member of the ulema class. Someone who knows about spiritual matters through conviction, the one whom Allah has assigned the task of teaching and guidance.
A man of knowledge from amongst
the Muslims who acts on what he knows. Due to a lack of any substantial physical evidence, most scientists and mental health professionals dismiss the phenomenon as "[d]eception, suggestibility (fantasy-proneness, hypnotizability, false-memory syndrome), personality, sleep phenomena, psychopathology, psychodynamics [and] environmental factors.". Skeptic Robert Sheaffer also sees similarity between the aliens depicted in early science fiction films, in particular, Invaders From Mars, and those reported to have actually abducted people. The first alien abduction claim to be widely publicized was the Betty and Barney Hill abduction in 1961. Reports of the abduction phenomenon have been made around the world, but are most common in English speaking countries, especially the United States. The contents of the abduction narrative often seem to vary with the home culture of the alleged abductee.
Alien abductions have been the
subject of conspiracy theories and science fiction storylines
(notably The X-Files) which have speculated on stealth technology
required if the phenomenon were real, the motivations for secrecy and
that alien implants could be a possible form of physical evidence. First day of the Islamic month of Muharram The Islamic New Year occurs on the first day of Muharram, the first month in the Islamic calendar. Muharram is one of four especially holy months for Muslims, along with Dhu al-Qadah, Dhu al-Hijjah (when the Pilgrimage to Mecca takes place), and Rajab (when Laylat al-Miraj is celebrated). The name of the month means "sacred." The first day of Muharram commemorates the flight of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca, where he had experienced hostility toward his teachings, to Medina in 622, which is considered year one in the Muslim calendar. Muhammad's journey, known as the Hijra, is an important milestone in Islamic history, because it brought the religion to more people. Muhammad was welcomed in Medina and soon had many followers.
Devout Muslims observe New Year's
Day by going to mosque to worship and listen to stories about
Muhammad and early Muslims. Muslims traditionally make resolutions on
this day to live more strongly in accord with the teachings of Islam.
Some people may exchange gifts, but this is not a popular custom. In Judaism, the honour, accorded to a worshiper, of being called up to read an assigned passage from the Torah at Sabbath morning services; or Jewish immigration to Israel. Because the passage assigned for each Sabbath morning service is subdivided into a minimum of seven sections, at least seven different persons are called up for these readings. Aliyah in the sense of immigration to Israel is ongoing but also occurs in waves. The first two waves of immigration occurred in 1882 – 1914, the next three in 1919 – 39. The sixth aliyah (1945 – 48) brought many Holocaust survivors. Later waves of immigration included Falasha from Ethiopia, émigrés from the former Soviet Union, and others. See also Zionism.
Su-rat al-Kawthar is the 108th
sura of the Qur'an, and the shortest. There are several differing
opinions as to the circumstances under which it was revealed.
According to Ibn Ishaq, it was revealed in Makka, some time before
the Isra and Miraj.
In the medieval discipline of
biblical exegesis, allegory became an important method
of interpretation, a habit of seeking correspondences between
different realms of meaning (e.g. physical and spiritual) or between
the Old Testament and the New (see typology).
It can be argued that modern critical interpretation continues this
allegorizing tradition. The text concerns revelations to Allogenes. Allogenes proceeds to describe how he overcame fear and ignorance, and ascended to the esoteric realm of the God of the Gnostics.
The Western church celebrates it on November 1st, called, also, Allhallows or Hallowmas; a feast day kept in honor of all the saints; also, the season of this festival. Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate All Saints Day in the springtime - on the Sunday after Pentecost. All Saints' Day (in the Roman Catholic Church officially the Solemnity of All Saints and also called All Hallows or Hallowmas), often shortened to All Saints, is a solemnity celebrated on 1 November by parts of Western Christianity, and on the first Sunday after Pentecost in Eastern Christianity, in honour of all the saints, known and unknown. In the Western calendar it is the day after Halloween and the day before All Souls' Day. In Western Christian theology, the day commemorates all those who have attained the beatific vision in Heaven. It is a national holiday in many historically Catholic countries. In the Catholic Church and many Anglican churches, the next day specifically commemorates the departed faithful who have not yet been purified and reached heaven. Christians who celebrate All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day do so in the fundamental belief that there is a prayerful spiritual bond between those in purgatory (the 'Church Suffering'), those in heaven (the 'church triumphant'), and the living (the 'church militant'). Other Christian traditions define, remember and respond to the saints in different ways; for example, in the Methodist Church, the word "saints" refers to all Christians and therefore, on All Saint's Day, the Church Universal, as well as the deceased members of a local congregation, are honored and remembered. Eastern Christians of the Byzantine Tradition commemorate all saints collectively on the first Sunday after Pentecost, All Saints' Sunday This Sunday marks the close of the Paschal season. To the normal Sunday services are added special scriptural readings and hymns to all the saints (known and unknown) from the Pentecostarion. In the late spring, the Sunday following Pentecost Sunday (50 days after Easter) is set aside as a commemoration of all locally venerated saints, such as "All Saints of America", "All Saints of Mount Athos", etc. The third Sunday after Pentecost may be observed for even more localized saints, such as "All Saints of St. Petersburg", or for saints of a particular type, such as "New Martyrs of the Turkish Yoke." In addition to the Sundays mentioned above, Saturdays throughout the year are days for general commemoration of all saints, and special hymns to all saints are chanted from the Octoechos. In the Swedish calendar, the observance takes place on the Saturday between October 31 and November 6. In many Lutheran Churches, it is moved to the first Sunday of November. In the Church of England it may be celebrated either on 1 November or on the Sunday between 30 October and 5 November. It is also celebrated by other Protestants of the English tradition, such as the United Church of Canada, the Methodist churches, and the Wesleyan Church. Protestants generally regard all true Christian believers as saints and if they observe All Saints Day at all they use it to remember all Christians both past and present. In the United Methodist Church, All Saints' Day is celebrated on the first Sunday in November. It is held, not only to remember Saints, but also to remember all those who have died who were members of the local church congregation. In some congregations, a candle is lit by the Acolyte as each person's name is called out by the clergy. Prayers and responsive readings may accompany the event. Often, the names of those who have died in the past year are affixed to a memorial plaque.
In many Lutheran churches, All
Saints' Day and Reformation Day are observed concurrently on the
Sunday before or after those dates, given Reformation Day is observed
in Protestant Churches on October 31. Typically, Martin Luther's
"A Mighty Fortress is Our God" is sung during the service.
Besides discussing Luther's role in the Protestant Reformation, some
recognition of the prominent early leaders of the Reformed tradition,
such as John Calvin and John Knox, occurs. The observance of
Reformation Day may be immediately followed by a reading of those
members of the local congregation who have died in the past year in
observance of All Saints' Day. Otherwise, the recognition of deceased
church members occurs at another designated portion of the service. Also called Soulmas Day, Saumas This is a day for prayer and almsgiving in memory of ancestors who have died. Believers pray for the souls of the dead, in an effort to hasten their transition from Purgatory to Heaven. It is primarily observed by Roman Catholics. All Souls' Day is celebrated yearly on November 2nd (exceptionally, Nov. 3). The date follows All Saints' Day, with the idea that remembering the saints in heaven should be followed by remembering the souls awaiting release from purgatory. Roman Catholic doctrine holds that the prayers of the faithful on earth will help cleanse these souls in order to prepare them for heaven.
In Catholic countries there are
many customs peculiar to All Souls' Day (e.g., leaving
lights in the cemeteries on the night before). These vary from region
to region. They should be distinguished from the customs of
Halloween, which were apparently an independent development. Almah is a Hebrew word meaning a young woman of childbearing age who has not yet had a child, and who may be an unmarried virgin or a married young woman. The term occurs nine times in the Hebrew Bible – see usage below. Almah - Definitions and Etymology The masculine equivalent of almah is elem meaning "youth" or "young man of the age of puberty". Feminizing these terms would result in "young woman" or "young woman of the age of puberty". Gesenius defines the word as a "girl of marriageable age". In modern Hebrew almah means a young woman or girl, a young or unmarried woman. The notion of marriageability is typically part of the definition of almah. In the ancient Near East girls had value as potential wives and bearers of children. Carolyn S. Leeb points out: "A wife, who came into her husband's household as an outsider, contributed her labor and her fertility. Her task was to build up the bet 'ab by bearing children, particularly sons". This same sense of marriageability does not accrue to the masculine elem even though they also have entered puberty, but it does apply to "bachur" or "young warrior", when boys have matured to the point of being able to support a new household. "Almah" was one of a list of sequential "terms, each depicting a fresh stage of life". (spellings per Gesenius translated to English): yeled or yaldah - newborn boy or girl. yonek or yanak - suckling baby. olel - suckling who also eats food. Translated as "young child" in Lamentations 4:4 (KJV). gamal - weaned child (under 3 years old). taph - young child, one who still clings to mother. Derived from the word for brisk, small, tripping steps of young children. elem or almah - firm and strong child
na'ar (masc) or
na'arah (fem.) - "independent or free child" (from a root
meaning "to shake off"). Also "handmaid",
"servant" or just "girl". The meaning of almah is most often determined by referring to its uses in the Bible. Unfortunately, there are only nine passages (two of them psalm headings) that use this term (and only two more use the masculine form elem). This results in a very small number of examples from which we may extract a definition. This small number is further reduced because only a few of these verses contain clear and unambiguous meanings. These few instances do not necessarily clarify the meaning of almah in the remaining passages. The problem is further compounded when one considers that these various texts were recorded by different authors living centuries apart. Languages tend to evolve over time and ancient Hebrew was no different.
See also Virgin
birth of Jesus
In the symbols of the early
Christian Church, these two letters are frequently combined with the
cross or with Christ's monogram to indicate his divinity.
The beginning and the end. In the
Greek alphabet, in which the New Testament was written, alpha is the
first letter and omega is the last. In the Book of Revelation, God
says, “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last,”
meaning that God remains from the beginning to the end of time. The original meaning of the word signified a raised structure, usually of stone, later of bronze, where sacrifices were offered or incense burned. Altars served as the focus of communal worship. Although the structures have been called by different names, all religions that share the element of sacrifice have used altars. Usually a severe ritual was enacted, with priests or shamans leading the rite while a congregation looked on. The offering consisted of everything from the plant material used in goddess worship to the animal sacrifices of Judaism and the elaborate human sacrifices of Canaanite and Olmec worship. The primary purpose of the altar was to sacrifice animals to the Lord.
Later, especially in Christianity,
a table was substituted, often called a Communion Table, because here
were placed the elements of the communion meal, which celebrated the
sacrifice of Jesus. They were not the descendants of Amalek, the son of Eliphaz, for they existed in the days of Abraham (Gen. 14:7). The Amalekites live in the Negev (Numbers 13:29). A nomadic tribe of uncertain origin, which occupied the peninsula of Sinai and the wilderness intervening between the southern hill-ranges of Palestine and the border of Egypt. (Numbers 13:29; 1 Samuel 15:7; 27:8) Saul defeated the Amalekites, from Havilah as you go to Shur, which is east of Egypt. (1 Samuel 15:7). A powerful people, who dwelt in Arabia Petraea, between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, perhaps in moving troops. We cannot assign the place of their habitation, except in general it is apparent that they dwelt south of Palestine, between Mount Seir and the border of Egypt; and it does not appear that they possessed many cities, though one is mentioned in 1 Samuel 15:5. They lived generally in migrating parties, in caves or in tents, like the Bedaween Arabs of the present day. Their wealth consisted in flocks and herds. Mention is made of a "town" (1 Samuel 15:5) but their towns could have been little more than stations or nomadic enclosures. The Amalekites first came in contact with the Israelites at Rephidim, but were signally defeated. (Exodus 17:8-16) In union with the Canaanites they again attacked the Israelites on the borders of Palestine, and defeated them near Hormah. (Numbers 14:45) Saul undertook an expedition against them. (1 Samuel 14:48) Their power was thenceforth broken, and they degenerated into a horde of banditti. Their destruction was completed by David. (1 Samuel 30:1-17) Their kings bore the hereditary name of Agag (Num. 24:7; 1 Sam. 15:8). They attempted to stop the Israelites when they marched through their territory (Deut. 25:18), attacking them at Rephidim (Ex. 17:8-13; compare Deut. 25:17; 1 Sam. 15:2). Afterwards, they attacked the Israelites at Hormah (Num. 14:45).
In the Babylonian inscriptions
they are called “Sute,” in those of Egypt
“Sittiu,” and the Amarna tablets
include them under the general name of “Khabbati,” or “plunderers.”
Ambon See Amvon Amen is an exclamation by which listeners participate in a prayer, doxology, blessing or curse and declare their willingness to bear the results of this participation. By saying "Amen", the speaker promises to do as commanded by the king or God, and asks God to do what he has promised or what is requested in the prayer (I Kgs 1:36; Jer 11:5; 28:6). Such a response can also be liturgical; e.g. when the wife accused of adultery responds to the curse of the priest with "Amen, so be it" (Num 5:22) and especially when the people respond to the curses of the Levites (Deut 27:15-26). The doxological Amen is a special liturgical response with early roots going back at least to the Exile in Babylon (Ps 106:46-48). Although perhaps not used in the Herodian Temple, elsewhere the benediction "Blessed be the Lord", uttered by the leader or choir brought the congregation to respond with-the word Amen (I Chr 16:36). The division of the books of Psalms was marked either with a single (Ps 106:48) or a double Amen (Ps 41:13; 72:19; 89:52). The NT usage of Amen is mainly consistent with the above. It forms a response to a spoken prayer which all have understood (I Cor 14:16), to a doxology (Rev 1:6; 5:14), or to a promise of the heavenly Christ (Rev 22:20). Paul declares that the Christ proclaimed by him "was never a blend of Yes and No. With him it was and is, Yes. He is the Yes and Amen pronounced upon God's promises, every one of them." He argues further that this is the reason why, "when we give glory to God, it is through Christ Jesus that we say Amen" (II Cor 1:19-20, New English Bible). Three unique usages of the NT writers are reflected in this Pauline affirmation. "The Amen" becomes one of the titles of Christ as the faithful and the true witness (Rev 3:14). Paul also seems to be in touch with the solemn use of this formula by Jesus, reflected most strongly in the Johannine writings where it appears some 24 times in almost stereotypical fashion. The fact that the gospel tradition attributes it exclusively to the lips of Jesus, indicates something of the importance attached to it as a solemn statement having the force of an oath (Luke 23:43). As the word "Amen" is used to endorse a hope or wish but more especially to confirm a blessing, curse, or prayer which one has heard. There are 14 examples of this formula in the Hebrew Bible (Deut. 27:15ff., Ps. 106:48, etc.). In the ritual of the First Temple, as a congregational response to the Priestly Blessing, amen was not used. During and after the period of the Second Temple, it assumed lasting importance in the synagogue Liturgy. From the musical service of the Levites and from the prayers and blessings of later Jewish worship, the use of amen as a standard response was also adopted by Christians (and, to a lesser extent, by Muslims). Talmudic sources relate that the huge central synagogue of Alexandria drew such a vast congregation that an official had to signal with a flag whenever worshipers needed to respond with amen (Suk. 51b). According to a rabbinic homily, this term is an acronym for El Melekh Ne'Eman ("God, faithful King"; Shab. 119b). Both sinful Jews and righteous Gentiles have only to say amen once to be saved from perdition (Yal. Deut. 837). In general, the rule is that all prescribed Benedictions are to be answered with amen. It is forbidden to do so, however, when someone pronounces a vain or superfluous blessing, nor may one give this response to a blessing of one's own, except when reciting the benediction for Jerusalem in Grace After Meals. Amen should be said after each complete sentence of the Kaddish and after each verse of the Priestly Blessing, the only time that amen can be melodically prolonged (cf. Ber. 47a). In some Diaspora communities, the response after the last verse of the Priestly Blessing is extended to amen, ken yehi ratson---"Amen, may this be God's will!"
Because the language of the ASV
was limited to Elizabethan English, as well as because of what some
perceived to be its excessive literalism, it never achieved wide
popularity, and the King James Version would remain the primary
translation for most American Protestant Christians until the
publication of the Revised Standard Version in 1952. However, for
many years the ASV was the standard Bible for many seminaries. In
fact, this was another nickname it gained, the Standard Bible, and so
the translators who produced the RSV called it a revision of the
Standard Bible, hence the name, "Revised Standard Version".
Americas The Americas, or America, also known as the New World, are the combined continental landmasses of North America and South America, in the Western Hemisphere. Along with their associated islands, they cover 8.3% of the Earth's total surface area (28.4% of its land area). The topography is dominated by the American Cordillera, a long chain of mountains that run the length of the west coast. The flatter eastern side of the Americas is dominated by large river basins, such as the Amazon, Mississippi, and La Plata. Extending 14,000 km (8,699 mi) in a north-south orientation, the climate and ecology varies widely across the Americas, from arctic tundra of Northern Canada, Greenland, and Alaska, to the tropical rain forests in Central America and South America.
Humans first settled the Americas
from Asia between 40,000 BCE and 15,000 BCE. A second migration of
Na-Dene speakers followed later from Asia. The subsequent migration
of the Inuit into the neoarctic around 3500 BCE completed what is
generally regarded as the settlement by the Indigenous peoples of the
Americas. Maybe the first European discovery of and settlement in the
Americas was by the Norse explorer Leif Ericson. However the
colonization never became permanent and was later abandoned. The
voyages of Christopher Columbus from 1492 to 1502 resulted in
permanent contact with European (and subsequently, other Old World)
powers, which led to the Columbian exchange. Diseases introduced from
Europe and Africa devastated the Indigenous peoples, and the European
powers colonised the Americas. Mass emigration from Europe, including
large numbers of indentured servants, and forced immigration of
African slaves largely replaced the Indigenous Peoples. Beginning
with the American Revolution in 1776 and Haitian Revolution in 1791,
the European powers began to decolonise the Americas. Currently,
almost all of the population of the Americas resides in independent
countries; however, the legacy of the colonisation and settlement by
Europeans is that the Americas share many common cultural traits,
most notably Christianity and the use of Indo-European languages;
primarily Spanish, English, and Portuguese. More than 900 million
people live in the Americas (about 13.5% of the human population),
the most populous countries being the United States, Brazil, and
Mexico, the most populous cities being São Paulo, Mexico City
and New York City.
Amharic is a Semitic language spoken in Ethiopia. It is the second-most spoken Semitic language in the world, after Arabic, and the official working language of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Thus, it has official status and is used nationwide. Amharic is also the official or working language of several of the states within the federal system. It has been the working language of government, the military, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church throughout medieval and modern times. Outside Ethiopia, Amharic is the language of some 2.7 million emigrants. It is written using Amharic Fidel, which grew out of the Ge'ez abugida—called, in Ethiopian Semitic languages, fidel ("alphabet", "letter", or "character") and abugida (from the first four Ethiopic letters, which gave rise to the modern linguistic term abugida).
There is no agreed way of
transliterating Amharic into Roman characters. Not to be confused with Amidah
Celestial Buddha who, while a
bodhisattva, vowed to lead all beings to the Pure Land. Amida
is the focus of devotion in Pure Land Buddhism and one of several
revered buddhas of the Mahayana tradition. Not to be confused with Amida The Amidah is the central prayer of all four services: shacharit (morning), mincha (afternoon), maariv (evening), and mussaf (additional). The word Amidah literally means standing, because it is recited while standing. It is also known as Shemoneh Esrei, meaning eighteen, because it originally consisted of eighteen blessings, and as tefilah (prayer) because it is the most important Jewish prayer. The obligation to pray three times a day, which was established by Ezra and codified in the Talmud (Berakhot 26b), is fulfilled by reciting the Amidah. In the 5th century B.C.E., the 120 men of the Great Assembly composed the basic text of the Amidah. The exact form and order of the blessings were codified after the destruction of the Second Temple in the first century C.E. The Amidah was expanded from eighteen to nineteen blessings in the 2nd century C.E., under the leadership of Rabbi Gamliel the Elder in Yavneh. The additional blessing (against heretics) was initially meant to combat the threats posed by the Samaritan and Sadducee sects, and was permanently added to the liturgy when Jewish converts to Christianity began to inform on Jews to the Roman authorities. Jesus and his disciples would have prayed and earlier form of the Amidah when in the Temple and synagogues. On the Sabbath, the eighteen blessings are reduced to seven to avoid making certain types of requests of God on the day of rest.
Three times each day, observant
Jews pray the Amidah, offering praise to God for who He
is, and laying their requests before Him. Amillennialism is a view in Christian end-times theology named for its rejection of the theory that Jesus Christ will have a thousand-year long, physical reign on the earth. This is in opposition to premillennial and some postmillennial interpretations of chapter 20 of the Book of Revelation.
In contrast, the amillennial view
holds that the thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20 is a
symbolic number, not a literal description; that the millennium has
already begun and is identical with the current church age, (or more
rarely, that it ended with the destruction of Jerusalem in AD
70 — see Preterism). Amillennialism
holds that while Christ's reign during the millennium is spiritual in
nature, at the end of the church age, Christ will return in final
judgment and establish a permanent physical reign. When the Mennonites, lineal descendants of the Anabaptist movement in Europe, migrated to the United States from Switzerland, a splinter group broke away. This group believed wholeheartedly in the biblical command to "come out from them and be ye separate." Taking their name from Jakob Ammann, these were the Amish, and they have ever since retained their traditional lifestyle. They embrace pacifism and avoid many modern conveniences, such as electricity and automobiles, used by the "English" (as they call non-Amish) out in "the world." Instead they have continued to practice what they call their "plain" lifestyle, believing God intended people to live in redemptive community. Their beautifully kept farms have become tourist attractions, most notably in the Pennsylvania Dutch country, where it is common to see bearded farmers and women wearing traditional head coverings called kapps driving along country roads in horse-drawn black buggies. Popular restaurants in Amish communities offer some of the finest examples of American home cooking, featuring the traditional seven sweets and seven sours. But all this is surface appeal covering a deeply rooted, biblically based spiritual conviction that has been the driving force of their sect's strength for generations. Most Amish now live in the U.S. and Canada -- largely in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. They isolate themselves from the larger American/Canadian culture. Most Amish people are farmers.
In the popular mind the Amish seem
to be a fossilized body, blindly perpetuating the mind-set and
lifestyle of early ages. In fact, they practice a highly rational
selectivity in accepting or rejecting modern developments, always to
perpetuate their faith and further family welfare. Nevertheless,
their avoidance of high-school education, telephones in homes, radios
and television, electricity from power lines, self-propelled farm
implements, and motor vehicles evidence willful rejection of modern
ways. Their plain style of dressing, with chin beards, broad-fall
trousers, "soup-bowl" hair cuts, and broad-brimmed hats for
men and nonpatterned, form-concealing caped dresses (but using some
bright colors) and bonnets for women, also set them apart. (Children
among the Amish are dressed much like adults.) Their
insistence on the use of Pennsylvania-German in their families and
German in their church services and their reference to non-Amish
as "English" underscore their difference from general
society. It is paradoxically these differences that have made the Amish
so fascinating to outsiders.
Ammon (am' en) An ancient kingdom east of the Jordan River in present-day northwest Jordan. In the Bible, people living East of the Dead Sea. Their capital was Rabbath-Ammon, the present-day Amman (Jordan). Their god was Milcom, to whom Solomon built an altar. A Semitic people, they flourished from the 13th cent. B.C. to the 8th cent. B.C. and were then absorbed by the Arabs. Excavations in Jordan show that they had a highly developed kingdom. They were hostile to the Hebrews, to whom they were related. The ancestor for whom they were named was Lot's son Ben-Ammi.
See Ammonite
Ammonihah was a city with a
diverse population. A large portion of the people were descendants of
Nephi, Zoram, Sam, Jacob, Joseph, Nephi’s sisters, and others
who had separated themselves from the Lamanites five hundred years
earlier. (2 Ne. 5:6.) Also living among the Nephites in Ammonihah in
82 B.C. were some of the people of Zarahemla—Mulekites who forty
years earlier outnumbered the Nephites and could still be
distinguished from them. (Omni 1:19; Mosiah 25:2, 4.) Descendants of
the priests of Noah and daughters of the Lamanites were another
segment of the population. (Mosiah 25:12.) It is entirely possible
that full-blooded Lamanites were also in Ammonihah at this time:
missionary work by the sons of Mosiah had instigated friendly
relations between some Lamanites and Nephites, and Ammonihah was
apparently close to the border between Nephite and Lamanite land.
(See Alma 23:18. For location of Ammonihah, see Alma 8:3, 6; Alma
22:28; Alma 25:2.) The diversity of peoples in Ammonihah was great
enough that when Amulek introduced himself to Alma, he first
identified himself by saying, “I am a Nephite.” (Alma 8:20.)
Ammon or Amo (u)n, Egyptian god
represented sometimes as a ram, whose oracle at the oasis of Siwa in
the Libyan desert became known to the Greeks probably through the
north African Greek colony of Cyrene. Its fame rivalled that of
Delphi and Dodona, and it was consulted on a notable occasion by
Alexander the Great. The poet Pindar wrote a hymn to the god, and his
cult had arrived at Athens by the fourth century BC. Ammon was
usually portrayed in the Greek world with the head of Zeus bearing a
ram's curling horns. From the very beginning (Deut. 2:16-20) of their history till we lose sight of them (Judg. 5:2), this tribe is closely associated with the Moabites (Judg. 10:11; 2 Chr. 20:1; Zeph. 2:8). Both of these tribes hired Balaam to curse Israel (Deut. 23:4). The Ammonites were probably more of a predatory tribe, moving from place to place, while the Moabites were more settled. They inhabited the country east of the Jordan and north of Moab and the Dead Sea, from which they had expelled the Zamzummims or Zuzims (Deut. 2:20; Gen. 14:5). They are known as the Beni-ammi (Gen. 19:38), Ammi or Ammon being worshipped as their chief god. They were of Semitic origin, and closely related to the Hebrews in blood and language. They showed no kindness to the Israelites when passing through their territory, and therefore they were prohibited from "entering the congregation of the Lord to the tenth generation"(Deut. 23:3). Afterwards, they became hostile to Israel (Judg. 3:13). Jephthah waged war against them, and took "twenty cities; with a very great slaughter"(Judg. 11:33). They were again defeated by Saul (1 Sam. 11:11). David also defeated them and their allies the Syrians (2 Sam. 10:6-14), and took their chief city, Rabbah, with much spoil (2 Sam. 10:14; 12:26-31). The subsequent events of their history are noted in 2 Chr. 20:25; 26:8; Jer. 49:1; Ezek. 25:3,6. One of Solomon's wives was Naamah, an Ammonite. She was the mother of Rehoboam (1 Kings 14:31; 2 Chr. 12:13). The prophets predicted fearful judgments against the Ammonites because of their hostility to Israel (Zeph. 2:8; Jer. 49:1-6; Ezek. 25:1-5,10; Amos 1:13-15).
The national idol worshipped by
this people was Molech or Milcom, at whose altar they offered human
sacrifices (1 Kings 11:5,7). The high places built for this idol by
Solomon, at the instigation of his Ammonite wives, were
not destroyed till the time of Josiah (2 Kings 23:13). Amoraim were renowned Jewish scholars who "said" or "told over" the teachings of the Oral law, from about 200 to 500 CE in Babylonia and the Land of Israel. Their legal discussions and debates were eventually codified in the Gemara. The Amoraim followed the Tannaim in the sequence of ancient Jewish scholars. The Tannaim were direct transmitters of uncodified oral tradition; the Amoraim expounded upon and clarified the oral law after its initial codification. The Amoraic era The first Babylonian Amoraim were Abba Arika, respectfully referred to as Rav, and his contemporary and frequent debate partner, Shmuel. Among the earliest Amoraim in Israel were Rabbi Yochanan and Shimon ben Lakish. Traditionally, the Amoraic period is reckoned as seven or eight generations (depending on where one begins and ends). The last Amoraim are generally considered to be Ravina I and Rav Ashi, and Ravina II, nephew of Ravina I, who codified the Babylonian Talmud around 500 CE. In total, 761 amoraim are mentioned by name in the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds. 367 of them were active in the land of Israel from around 200-350 CE, while the other 394 lived in Babylonia during 200-500 CE. In the Talmud itself, the singular amora generally refers to a lecturer's assistant; the lecturer would state his thoughts briefly, and the amora would then repeat them aloud for the public's benefit, adding translation and clarification where needed. Stammaim The "Stammaim" is a term that has been coined by some modern scholars, such as Halivni, for the rabbis who composed the anonymous (stam) statements and arguments in the Talmud, some of whom may have worked during the period of the Amoraim, but who mostly made their contributions after the amoraic period. See also Savoraim.
Amorite refers to a Semitic people who occupied the country west of the Euphrates from the second half of the third millennium BC. The term Amurru refers to them, as well as to their principal deity. A people who occupied part of the Promised Land and often fought Israel. Their history goes back before 2000 B.C. They took control of the administration of Babylonia for approximately 400 years (2000-1595), their most influential king being Hammurabi (1792-1750). Their descent to Canaan may be traced back to 2100-1800 when their settlement in the hill country helped to set the stage for the revelation of God through Israel. Abraham assisted Mamre the Amorite in recovering his land from four powerful kings (Genesis 14:1), but later the Amorites were a formidable obstacle to the Israelites' conquest and settlement of Canaan. They preferred living in the hills and valleys that flank both sides of the Jordan River. Sihon and Og, two Amorite kings, resisted the Israelites' march to Canaan as they approached east of the Jordan (Numbers 21:21-35); but after the Israelite victory here, Gad, Reuben and half of Manasseh settled in the conquered area. These two early victories over the Amorites foreshadowed continued success against other Amorites to the west and were often remembered in both history (e.g., Deuteronomy 3:8; Joshua 12:2; Judges 11:19) and poetry (Numbers 21:27-30; Psalms 135:10-12; Psalms 136:17-22). West of the Jordan, the Amorites lived in the hills along with the Hivites, Hittites, and Jebusites (Numbers 13:29; Joshua 11:3); but specific identification of Amorite cities cannot be certain since the term “Amorite” is used often as a very general name for all the inhabitants of Canaan, as is “Canaanite” (e.g. Genesis 15:16; Joshua 24:15; Judges 6:10; 1 Kings 21:26). Five city-states in south Canaan formed an alliance instigated by the king of Jerusalem (Jebus, Jebusites) and intimidated an ally of Joshua, i.e. Gibeon. These “Amorites,” as they are called in the general sense, were defeated by Joshua's army and the Lord's “stones from heaven” (Joshua 10:1-27). Amorites also were among those in the north who unsuccessfully united to repel the Israelites (Joshua 11:1-15). Later, two other Amorite cities, Aijalon and Shaalbim, hindered the settlement of Dan near the Philistine border (Judges 1:34-36).
Amorite culture laid
at the root of Jerusalem's decadence, according to Ezekiel (Ezekiel
16:3,Ezekiel 16:45); and Amorite idolatry tainted the
religion of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms (1 Kings 21:26; 2
Kings 21:11). Despite the Amorite resistance and poor
influence, they were subjugated as slaves (Judges 1:35; 1 Kings
9:20-21; 2 Chronicles 8:7-8). Their past hindrance is a subject of
derision for the prophet Amos (Amos 2:9-10). 'Ambon'
The raised area in front of the
iconostasis, on which certain portions of the divine services take
place. Most characteristically, it is on the amvon that the deacon
stands when proclaiming the litanies; and the 'Prayer before the
amvon', proclaimed by the priest, is made before it at the end of the Liturgy.
A European Christian movement at
the time of the Protestant reformation. They believed in adult
baptism, freedom of belief, separation of church and state, the
rejection of war, and other beliefs that were rather advanced for
their time. they were harshly condemned and persecuted under
Protestants and Catholics alike. The Amish,
Hutterites and Mennonites trace their origins to the Anabaptists.
Some theologians and historians include the Society of Friends
(Quakers) and Moravians as Anabaptist denominations.
Some editions add additional
books, such as Psalm 151 or the Odes (including the Prayer of
Manasses). 2 Esdras is added as an appendix in the Slavonic Bibles
and 4 Maccabees as an appendix in Greek editions. anagogic, anagogical A mystical interpretation of a word, passage, or text, especially scriptural exegesis that detects allusions to heaven or the afterlife. Revealing a higher spiritual meaning behind the literal meaning of a text. Medieval Christian exegesis of the Bible (see typology) reinterpreted many episodes of Hebrew scripture according to four levels of meaning: the literal, the allegorical, the moral, and the anagogical. Of these, the anagogical sense was seen as the highest, relating to the ultimate destiny of humanity according to the Christian scheme of universal history, whereas the allegorical and moral senses refer respectively to the Church and to the individual soul. Anagogy or anagoge is thus a specialized form of allegorical interpretation, which reads texts in terms of eschatology.
See also allegory Anamim is, according to the Bible, either a son of Ham's, son Mizraim or the name of a people descending from him. A nation descended from Ham through his son Mizraim (Gen 10:6, 13; I Chr 1:11). A tribe or nation called “son of Egypt” in Genesis 10:13. No further information is known about these people. See Anam.
The name should perhaps be
attached to a people in northern Africa, probably in the surrounding
area of Egypt. A text from Assyria,
dating from the time of Sargon II, apparently calls the Egyptians "Anami".
The central prayers of the Divine
Liturgy, sometimes called the Canon or the prayers of consecration.
In the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom these begin with the
deacon's "Let us stand aright, let us stand in fear, let us
attend, that we may offer the holy oblation in peace', and the
choir's response: 'Mercy of peace, a sacrifice of praise . . .
Anatolia in geography known as
Asia Minor (from Greek: Mi-krá Asía ("small Asia");
in modern Turkish: Anadolu), Asian Turkey, Anatolian peninsula, or
Anatolian plateau, denotes the westernmost protrusion of Asia, which
makes up the majority of the Republic of Turkey. The region is
bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the
south, and the Aegean Sea to the west. The Sea of Marmara forms a
connection between the Black and Aegean Seas through the Bosphorus
and Dardanelles straits and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the
European mainland. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in
the east to a line between the Gulf of I.skenderun and the Black Sea,
approximately corresponding to the western two-thirds of the Asian
part of Turkey. However, since Anatolia is now often considered to be
synonymous with Asian Turkey, its eastern and southeastern borders
are widely taken to be the Turkish borders with the neighboring
countries, which are Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, and
Syria, in clockwise direction. The term anatomically modern humans (AMH) or anatomically modern Homo sapiens (AMHS) refers in paleoanthropology to individual members of the species Homo sapiens with an appearance consistent with the range of phenotypes in modern humans. Anatomically modern humans evolved from archaic Homo sapiens in the Middle Paleolithic, about 200,000 years ago. The emergence of anatomically modern human marks the dawn of the subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens, i.e. the subspecies of Homo sapiens that includes all modern humans. The oldest fossil remains of anatomically modern humans are the Omo remains, which date to 195,000 (±5,000) years ago and include two partial skulls as well as arm, leg, foot and pelvis bones.
Other fossils include the proposed Homo
sapiens idaltu from Herto in Ethiopia that are almost 160,000
years old and remains from Skhul in Israel that are 90,000 years old.
The oldest human fossil from which an entire genome has been
extracted belongs to a man who lived about 45,000 years ago in
Western Siberia. The Anchor Bible Commentary Series, created under the guidance of William Foxwell Albright (1891–1971), comprises a bookwise translation and exegesis of the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Intertestamental Books (the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Deuterocanon/the Protestant Apocrypha; not the books called by Catholics and Orthodox "Apocrypha", which are widely called by Protestants the Pseudepigrapha). For each biblical book, the series includes an original translation (with annotations, including alternative translations) of ancient texts, using modern knowledge of the ancient languages; overviews of the historical, critical, and literary evolution of the text; an outline of major themes and topics; a verse-by-verse commentary; treatment of competing scholarly theories; historical background; and photographs, illustrations, and maps of artifacts and places associated with biblical figures and sites. Lengthy or complex biblical books are covered in more than one volume.
A work in progress, as of 2006,
the series has produced over 80 volumes, some of which are updates of
earlier works. The series is 99% complete; the second half of Exodus
was released in early December 2006, and the remaining volumes are in
production. Others such as II Chronicles and Revelation are under contract.
The Anchor Bible Dictionary
contains more than 6,000 entries from 800 international scholars. It
has illustrations and line-art throughout, and is also available on
CD-ROM from Logos Bible Software or Accordance for the Macintosh. The
"Dictionary" includes articles on the Dead Sea Scrolls,
early Jewish-Christian relations, the historical Jesus, sociological
and literary methods of biblical criticism, feminist hermeneutics,
and numerous entries on archaeological sites, as well as
bibliographies with citations listed individually at the end of each article.
The Anchor Bible Reference Library
is an open-ended series composed of more than thirty separate volumes
with information about anthropology, archaeology, ecology, geography,
history, languages, literature, philosophy, religions, and theology,
among others. The civilization of ancient Egypt thrived from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River Valley. Controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which fueled social development and culture. With resources to spare, the administration sponsored mineral exploitation of the valley and surrounding desert regions, the early development of an independent writing system, the organization of collective construction and agricultural projects, trade with surrounding regions, and a military that defeated foreign enemies and asserted Egyptian dominance. Motivating and organizing these activities was a bureaucracy of elite scribes, religious leaders, and administrators under the control of a pharaoh who ensured the cooperation and unity of the Egyptian people through an elaborate system of religious beliefs.
Ancient Egyptian units of measurement Ancient Egyptian units of measure include units for length, area and volume
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